There were a number of 'alternative' fashion stores, including Monki and Cheap Monday. Owned by the H&M group, these two brands are much more in-fitting here than on Oxford Street for example where heavy footfall brings in the masses rather than a more dedicated and loyal customer base. Monki's interior design is really distinguishable; its quirky personality is much more suited to the personality of the Soho district. I also noted that there were a number of high-end make-up brand stores which stood alone - unusual, given the high number of department stores in the city centre of London which usually stock these brands within. I visited the Benefit and Urban Decay stores. Independent restaurants as well as 'fashionable' chains were prevalent in the area. I visited 'Veggie Pret', a vegetarian/vegan sub-chain of Pret-a-Manger, the breakfast and lunch spot which dominates London's high-streets. I noticed that a lot of the cafés and restaurants in the area catered well for vegetarians, vegans and coeliacs, suggesting that the area is extremely current and inclusive by following trends of the younger generation. 
I also visited Liberty London department store for the first time today. It's possibly the last department store that I've visited in London but I appreciate its history and background like I do with Harrods or Selfridges for example. During my visit to New York last year, which I documented in my critical journal, I learnt a lot about the Macy's department store through guided tours and my own independent research. The shopping experience is a really fundamental part of the structure of the Liberty brand; its construction was concerned with creating a "homely feel" by installing fireplaces. The building is incredibly striking among the more modern structures in the area as it was designed during "a revival of Tudor fashion" in the 1920s. Its influence initially came from the inspiration behind Eastern bazaars and Japanese society which still seemingly remains to this day, as goods of all kinds are displayed in full and organised by distinct categories. While Liberty has prolonged its historical influence and trend inspiration to modern day, I also saw examples of modern trends being adopted like the sale of iron-on patches, stickers and pins sold exclusive to the department store. These patches are good tools to encourage customers to make an additional purchase to their brand new designer item or to prompt customers who don't have enough disposable income to make a small purchase with the aspiration of one day shopping for something more expensive.
The visual merchandising in the front shop windows and within store was consistent throughout. The theme instantly lead me to think of summer given the dry and natural aspects including hay, wooden beams, grass and plants. The simplicity in some ways was more striking that the intricate displays often seen in Harvey Nicholls as it drew my attention closer to the clothing and garments. In-store, the arrangement of the clothed mannequins and the large-scale hay bales was really attractive to the eye and it was refreshing to consider the visual merchandising on par with the beautiful artworks and unusual pieces sold within the store. In the front windows, I appreciated the way that they were divided by brand; certain brands caught my attention more than others and I was therefore far more likely to stop and take a closer look than I would have been if the windows had been brand-mixed.
I also picked up a free copy of the London Evening Standard today, which was full of fashion content in the aftermath of London Fashion Week. The London Evening Standard paper has a large readership of 1,667,000 which actually exceeds Vogue UK. Because of this, the content in the newspaper must cater for a wide audience on a large scale. There was a small section which discussed Kendall Jenner's appearance on the runway of Moschino's latest collection at Milan Fashion Week. This small feature is appealing to a variety of London Evening Standard readers; the business commuter may not immediately recognise Jenner or have much interest in fashion, while others with some fashion/pop culture based-knowledge would appreciate the large image provided alongside the small writing feature. A two-page spread was provided midway through the paper in the 'Going Out' section, which concentrates on film, music, festival and food content, on the recent Oscars award ceremony. I was surprised to see very limited fashion content within this feature, as I have already been exposed to a number of style based red-carpet features about the Oscars online and in print. Despite not honing down on specific gowns or red-carpet looks, the language used was extremely concentrated on style descriptives like "glamorous" and "glitzy". One section briefly made the comparison between the awards as a celebration of creativity and the creativity of the gowns and fashion actually worn and seen there. Finally, there was a two-page spread on "the week that the hijab become hot news" in the aftermath of London's first Modest Fashion Week. I had followed this story intently during LFW so was already quite informed prior to reading the article, although the informative content in this article was nevertheless quite impressive and effective. The writer referred to the recent wave of increased sensitivity to alternative faiths as 'Generation M' which I appreciated, as it makes it clear that despite the youth of this new factor in fashion, it has been recognised as significant and 'here to stay'. The article took a number of quotes from a variety of different direct sources including:- Lindsay Lohan who was recently racially profiled while wearing a veil
- Shaista Aziz, founder of an anti-racism platform
- Sheila Janmohamed, vice president of an international consulting and marketing agency who reach out to Muslims
- Mariah Idrissi, H&M model for the recent modest campaign
- Ian Griffiths, Max Mara's creative director
The inclusion of opinions and thoughts from a variety of reliable and credible sources contributes significantly to the informative nature of the article overall. The sheer number of quotes bulked up the feature to make it an extensive and thoroughly researched piece.
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