From today, London department store Harrods has dedicated 20,000sq ft of its retail space and all of its premium windows to a Chanel takeover.
For the first time ever, the entirety of its Brompton Road façade will be dedicated to a single brand, with all 23 front facing windows hosting Chanel’s vision for Fall/Winter 2011 with a timeline display inspired by the brand’s history.
Harrods comments that the event is in honor of the brand’s enduring creativity and influence, with themes spanning from founder Coco Chanel to incumbent creative Karl Lagerfeld.
In-store, a pop up fashion boutique splits into three rooms, one red, one green and one blue, displaying accessories, bags, shoes, and fine jewelry against the backdrop of a magical forest. In addition Chanel’s interpretation of familiar Harrods items, including the green shopping bag are available in the self-contained boutique, which has exterior walls rendered in black and white, embossed with lions’ heads.
A beauty boutique sits alongside and showcases the specially created Knightsbridge Collection of cosmetics.
A third floor installation, entitled Une Promenade, takes shoppers through a pearl curtain into a conceptual retail space themed Coco in Wonderland. It includes a walk-in 2.55 Chanel handbag that hosts a video wall of the production process behind the creation of the iconic bag. A mirrored room is devoted to haute couture collections while elsewhere is a miniaturized version of the Versailles Garden setting for the Spring 2011 runway show.
From street level, the Brompton Road façade bears Chanel banners while the windows, inspired by creative director Karl Lagerfeld’s latest collection include unicorn sheep and wolf-headed men clad in textured silks and tweeds, as part of the forest fantasy.
The installation is in place for the next three weeks, until Sep 27.