Discovering Merchandising

I found the trip to London helped a great deal as it made us look a lot closer at how other designers show their collections, and what the end product looks like once displayed in a shop. Even though most of us go shopping quite often, we seldom look into detail at the process taken to set up the layout, decoration, etc. and this is what this trip has taught me to do. I think the most useful place we went to was Selfridges, as it allows you to compare how different designer’s layout their collections all under one roof. For me personally I thought that quite a lot of the designers had similar layouts, everything matched by colour, each rail had a mix of dresses, trousers, skirts and coats to give an idea of how an outfit can be constructed from that one collection. The reason why they do this is to try and get people to buy more than one item of clothing at a time, if a customer wants to by a dress and see's a coat/jacket that matches it perfectly, they are more inclined to buy both. 

When it came to the decoration of the surroundings, all of the designers had their own style. The one that stood out for me was Jean Paul Gautier’s Great Britain inspired collection. Not because I thought the clothes were more amazing than any of the others I saw but the interactive station and the artwork on the wall really made them stand out from the other brands. 

The thing that let me down the most on this trip was my organisation. If I had planned my route slightly better then I would have been able to visit a lot more streets and collect more data that would have bettered my research. I think the other part that set me back was the weather, which made it difficult for me to motivate myself to go to as many streets as possible. So that I can expand my research I might go back on a different day and visit the streets that I didn't get a chance to see on Monday. 

Berwick Street 

Berwick street was the main place that I wanted to visit because I know how important fabric decisions are, and the only way of choosing the right fabric is by seeing and feeling it so that you know exactly what the texture and weight is like. Over this week I’m going to look at the samples I collected and start think about what type of fabric would work best for what I want to produce.