The final episode of Liberty of London's second series aired on Channel 4 this Wednesday (*sighs*) and there was no better way to finish the series with an episode focusing on the stores lead up to their grand Christmas displays.
With it being Liz Silvester's (new head of visual identity) first Christmas working at the store, she really needed to pull out all the stops and create a fabulous, showstopping, festive atmosphere to really impress not only the public, but also all the staff members at Liberty. Working with the management team, this years theme really plays on the heritage of the building. The traditionally British store was created using the decks and timbers of two sailing ships, and so using this as a starting point, the team decided to create a story around the history of the store. Entitled 'The store that launched a thousand gifts', the story focuses on the history of the brand, where founder Sir Arthur Liberty travelled around the world bringing gifts and treasures to the store. With such an impressive and meaningful story, Liz had to really think outside the box in order to create the breathtaking atmosphere she was looking to create at the grand opening.
With the traditions running through Liz's mind, she decided that it would look spectacular to hang the entire ships mast from the roof of the store, visible from all floors and filling the Liberty atrium. Although the idea seemed impossible, Liz pulled it off, and complete with Liberty fabric sails, the final look was beautiful, impressing every single member of the team.
But of course, all is not plain sailing (excuse the pun!). With the Regent Street Christmas light switch on changed to a week later than normally planned, the Liberty store also decided it was best to change their unveiling of their magnificent window displays till this date also, in an attempt to produce the biggest crowd possible - but would this mean their competition having a week head-start on customers spending for Christmas? It was a risk the team were willing to take!
And this risk really did pay off! With the windows completely covered in a famous Liberty floral print, the crowd built until the street was completely full. And when the curtains were dropped, the 'oooohs' and 'aaaahs' were echoing as people of all ages gathered around the windows to see Liz's glimmering masterpieces. Grasping the theme with both hands, and adding a touch of Christmas spirit, the windows really told the story of the stores history, with Ed describing it as "possibly the best window displays we've ever had!".
Overall, I really enjoyed looking further into the run up to Christmas within the retail industry, especially after watching how the American's do it in the film 'Scatter my ashes at Bergdorf's'. Last Christmas I worked at the Arcadia fashion store, OUTFIT, myself and saw first hand how the Christmas period puts so much pressure on members of staff to sell more, but the decorations and visual merchandising could not compare to these spectacular window displays that are shown in Bergdorf Goodmans, or even other huge UK department stores such as Liberty of London. I would love to see the UK shops catch up with the US market and create even bigger and more detailed window displays which really scream Christmas at everyone who walks past. I hope Liberty of London let us have a further look into the store as I really enjoyed this series and seeing all the roles that employees have in this large store environment - fingers crossed for a third series!
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