In the blood bath that is the high street, the winners create unique designer-let environments, provide exemplary service and make their customers feel welcome, stimulated and valued. Retail needs to be as imaginative and engaging as the entertainment industry. The losers don’t have what you want in stock, provide an unexciting experience and, if you do actually want to buy something, don’t seem that interested in taking your money. No wonder the internet is capturing much of the retail world.
Thus, Selfridges, which stands heads and shoulders above several of the other department stores nearby, says ‘Goodbye’ to green holly and to red berries. For designers, the Christmas of the future is subtle, composed of white, black, grey and muted shades, with the added glamour of crystals, with the strongest emphasis being on white, even on tins of tomato soup…. It is as if the Witch of the North has taken over design….
Selfridges collaborated with artist and designer Daniel Arsham who has taken today’s icons and reimagined them as if rediscovered in a Christmas archaeological investigation in the future…., with the crystals cascading out of the heart of the finds, now exposed.
Perhaps this is what Christmas will be like in the latter half of the 21st century when we have given up on Earth and moved to new planets……