In less than four months, I’ll be done school. Four intense, sleep-depriving years later, and here I am, ready for my degree and to move onto the next phase of my life. It’s been an invaluable experience, to say the least, from the individual classes and projects themselves to the friends made and life lessons learned. But I am ready to move on, which in itself is saying something: that I’m ready to take what I’ve learned and apply it to the real world. This will be the year that bicyclette, as a retail store, will come into existence. My business plan, now in its’ fifth incarnation, is close to being completed, which is an exciting feat in and of itself. If I think back to the summer, when I made the decision that opening a store is what I wanted to do, and bicyclette first began to form in my mind, I’ve come a long way. This blog is an extension of that as well, and I thank all of my readers for your support and contributions. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the process, and look forward to growing it even more, as it has become an invaluable method of creative exploration and brainstorming for me on both a personal and (semi)professional level.

On that note, I would love to hear from you about what you’ve enjoyed about my blog and what you would like me to introduce or share more of.

It’s been a learning process, and I think I’m still experimenting and trying to find my niche. The aim is to find a balance between store-related topics and explore various facets of bicyclette, often in the form of inspiration, as well as share personal musings with a strong tendency towards all things style and design-oriented.

But without further ado, on to the traditional Monday blog topic:

There are some posts where I go into it knowing exactly what I’m going to write about. I’m constantly bookmarking links or saving photos to come back to. But sometimes I have to go searching, in order to fulfill a certain void. Today was one such day, though I at least knew what I wanted it to be focused on: window displays. I believe that, in terms of retail visual merchandising, the window display is extremely important and sets the tone for the rest of store, before customers even know what to expect. It can be exceptionally styled mannequins, an artistic installation, or a strong theme which has the ability to draw someone in off of the street and give them a reason to venture in through the door. This is a topic I would like to explore further, as I think there is a lot of inspiring displays and interesting facts to share, but today I wanted to focus on one retailer in particular: Holt Renfrew, and in particular the summer 2009 blogger windows.

Holt Renfrew showcased six style-focused bloggers for their summer windows, including Jane Aldrige of Sea of Shoes, Garance Dore, Bryan Boy, Tommy Ton of Jak & Jil, Scott Schuman of The Sartorialist, and Anita Clarke of I Want-I Got. The reasons why I love these windows? They reflect Holt’s ability to commit wholeheartedly to a display concept from idea to execution. The tone, style and individual personality of each blog is represented in the windows and they’re a feast for the eyes, like all of Holt’s displays. These windows also speak to a topic that is near and dear to my heart right now: the abundance and importance of blogging and social media in fashion today. As the research topic of my thesis this year, I never cease to find it an interesting subject, and I honestly believe that it is changing the way we look at and interact with fashion. This sums it up perfectly: “Social media is such a huge phenomenon,” says John Gerhardt, Holt Renfrew’s creative director. “It’s democratizing fashion.” Cheers to that.

This will be something I will no doubt touch more upon in the future, but for now, here’s some images of the windows themselves.

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Thoughts on Holt’s windows? These in particular, or their displays in general… Any other favourites in terms of visual displays and window design?