Selfridges opens world’s largest shoe department

There are shoe departments and then there are The Shoe Galleries at Selfridges, which take customers on a retail journey of six ‘galleries’, 11 shoe boutiques and 4,000 pairs of shoes on display over a whole floor.

It's a shoe wonderland and beats the recent 'biggest shoe department' record over at Saks in New York hands down.

The Shoe Galleries was designed by architect Jamie Fobert to be a place of exploration within Selfridges, recently voted the world’s best department store. Actually it's like there are layers of shoe rooms to discover and explore from high-street to designer to what I would call uber-designer.



‘Imagine you are in a gallery,’ says Selfridges’ director of accessories Sebastian Manes. ‘From the entrance you see a succession of doorways and at the end a huge window flooding the space with daylight. Your journey begins at the front, with shoes from the best of the high street. Slowly you begin to travel through different galleries until you reach the end – the couture designer gallery, flanked by Chanel and Louboutin, and a vision of Eden – the new suspended garden at Selfridges.’



I hunted out some serious Alexander Wang heels, some great grey Givenchy booties, those Balenciaga op-art pumps and the must-have Celine courts for this autumn. I hear Selfridges has negotiated plenty of exclusives with designers for the various rooms. Meanwhile there are shop-in-shops for the likes of Jimmy Choo, Christian Louboutin and Repetto that are designed to reflect the homes of each of the designers.


What I also heard on the industry grapevine was that because D&G didn't get one of the designer boutique 'rooms' flanking the main designer floor they had a bit of a disagreement with management and pulled out of selling to Selfridges completely. That's £1m revenue in shoes alone! Hissy fit or what!!!

Dover Street Market: Tachiagari AW comes early

Autumn/Winter collections seem to arrive earlier and earlier each season and while most designer emporiums let the new deliveries slip quietly into store Dover Street Market has a completely new look each season called Tachiagari - and it's a refreshing way to introduce customers to the new designer offers with exciting corners, VM displays and personality enhancing spaces.





The press preview on Monday did not disappoint, so feast your eyes on my whirlwind tour of the new spaces (floor by floor - and then back again for a few bits I missed!).

First off, loved the colourful floral window display. Complete with heady scent, Andy Hillman has created a mystical garden illusion, entitled Endless Summer, which invites guests into what feels like a greenery tunnel. Andy Hillman is a set designer who regularly works with photographer Tim Walker (former DSM collaborator) forming whimsical and magical worlds.

And more of my personal favourites include the new Comme des Garcons Shirt for women corner (rose pink & frilly whites), the suspended hanging space for Hussein Chalayan, the 'front row of fashion' Lanvin show experience, Anne Valerie Hash's reading corner space, Charles Anastase's 'my own private museum' collection of drawings alongside his grown up chic outfits, the World corner complete with eccentric masks and vintage collectibles, Loewe's sumptuous leather bags, Ferragamo's vintage table laden with 70s era shoes and the hidden away, decadent new shoe "department" (love the axes on the carpet wall) carrying hot labels such as New Gen award winner Michael Lewis, Sergio Rossi, Bruno Frisoni, Mr Hare, Cleo B and T29. Nicholas Kirkwood's new geometric frame display is also nearby, next to the new YSL Edition 24 corner full of timeless classics - and don't miss the expanded Comme des Garcons Homme Deux tailoring desk.







The new Comme des Garçons pop-up brand Black made it's debut here a couple of weeks ago (now on the ground floor for 18 months) along with brand new shop fits for Junya Watanabe, Comme des Garçons Shirt (for men) with those active looking mannequins and Comme des Garçons mainline - the collection entitled, Wonderland draws its inspiration from creating illusions such as layering of materials and prints on accessories. Check out those chic military surrealist parkas.






Tao's little rail of frills is so cute and so is the Undercover space opposite - it's like a treasure trove at the top of the forbidden tower.

In fact there's a bit of a shoe thing going on too (great news for shoe lovers such as myself) for men and women.












Downstairs the basement has had a bit of a refurb too with a whole new sneaker space - carrying hotties like Volta, F-Troupe, Generic Surplus, Common Projects and new spaces for Engineered Garments, Original Fake, Visvim, Monocle, Supreme and the new own-label from Dover Street Market. Sadly it's the last collection for Number (N)ine down here too.


And finally, loving the new collector's book space from Idea Books - this week celebrating man's first steps on the moon.

Captions and more photos here:

DSM Tachiagari AW 09