Shopping itinerary – London

“Shopping Trail – London” is another article belonging to the series with the same title. This time we will take you on a tour of the British capital. If you’re looking for a unique place where different styles and cultures mix, you’ve come to the perfect place. London is not only famous chain stores such as Primark and Zara, but also the cradle of great fashion houses. Check it out for yourself!

American entrepreneur Harry Gordon Selfridge already has nearly three decades of experience at Chicago’s largest department store, Marshall Field, where he started by stacking products on shelves. On Oxford Street, which was a suburb of London in 1909, he opens a department store where, by design, shopping is supposed to be as exciting for women as sex.

The unusual approach to running a London department store is apparent at first glance. Storefronts have been arranged by the most prominent decorators from the very beginning, giving rise to the technique of so-called visual merchandising. In the serialized adventures of Mr. Selfridge, his associate Monsieur Leclair explains:

“I don’t decorate women like designers, I decorate the space, every showcase in Selfridges, will be like a painting, looking at them, people will imagine themselves in the story I am telling. Maybe there will be a handsome man in the showcase and his beautiful lady, whom he will look at with passion. Maybe they are going for a ride.

– Will you put the car on the showcase?

– Yes, why not?”

The enterprising American was a master of advertising. He introduced the slogan “Shopping at Selfridges: pleasure – entertainment – respite,” thus creating not so much a place as a lifestyle. His flyers proclaimed “Everyone’s welcome!” And he advertised primarily on the leaflets of suffragettes who fought for women’s rights in London in the early 20th century. Harry Gordon Selfridges sympathized with this milieu, making Selfridges’ spaces available for women’s meetings and dressing them in white dresses that made them look chic and neat. Shopping centers such as Selfridges are not only temples of shopping that are part of the fashion map of cities, but also places that impress with their aesthetics and the history they create.

Statistics report that London is a much better globally connected city than, say, Paris (A.T. Kearney, 2016). These cities share not only the English Channel, but also a fashion DNA whose origins can be traced to the first shopping malls – their stories can intrigue more than many a book.

London is the destination of choice for those who want to be enticed by the smell of oriental food in China Town, are intrigued by the multicultural melting pot, and the bustling pubs on every corner only encourage them to extend their nights. However, the undecided should follow their intuition – both when traveling and when refreshing their closet in European capitals.