Liberty of London

"I was determined not to follow existing fashion but to create new ones"
- Arthur Liberty

Episode 1 of the second season of Liberty of London followed managing director Ed Burstell and his fellow 400 co-workers as they pulled together to re-vam
p the store in time for the Christmas season. Burstell was brought in to modernize Liberty, and so that he did. With his 'open call' to which saw 800 entrepreneurs que down the street purely to get the chance to pitch in front of Ed and his team for a mere 3 minutes in hope of being 1 of the 12 people picked for a chance to have their concepts sold in store. Out of the 800 hopefuls we only followed one success, Essex girl Nancy who had qued since 4am the previous morning in hope to pitch 'Nancy's Nails'; a scented nail varnish top coat. Other hopefuls included Richard and Sal with their £185 "doggy jacket" which never made it past the pop up shop..

The episode followed team members from all of the different departments within the store as they worked to keep Liberty's timeless and aura of wealth but also adding in a sense of youth and the modern world.

Quirky and eccentric stylist Omar was in charge of pulling the most extravagant yet elegant looks for both customers and the styling team to which they would then photograph and Instagram in the hope of appealing to the 'fresh shopper'.

Head of Identity, Liv Silvester worked to design a 'Summer of sports' window display following the themes of swimming, cricket and gymnastics which would be used to showcase the products in an innovative way...something that did not sit well with Managing Director Ed Burstell. However despite this failure, Liv then worked with a team until 5am, 2 hours before the store was due to open, on rearranging the 'Scarf Hall' in order to try and get the falling sales of Liberty's most prestigious and identifiable product; the hand crafted silk scarfs, back to where they were when the store first began. The end result was a concoction of bold, vibrant, eye catching prints swallowing the room and taking you into an almost exotic climate as scarfs loosely draped around mannequins in an angelic manor, yet the help of the 'bondage' like Liberty embellished straps harnessing the mannequins helped to add a more modern edge by grabbing the consumers attention with its controversially sexual display with its "drama and motion".

The final way in which we saw the rejuvenating of the store was with the help of American singer/ Songwriter Pharrell Williams and his uni-sex fragrance collaboration with the brand, to which saw the store transform from "no longer being a grandma's store" to "cutting edge and cool".

Overall, the programme itself gave a great insight in to both the store itself and what goes on behind the scenes, it showed us as the consumers that the team behind the brand care just as much about the aura that the store is giving off as well as the care that they have for both their old and new consumers. The documentary definitely helped the brand to become more personable to the consumer as I feel, we are allowed in to follow their journey of transformation.

Sourced from: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/liberty-of-london/on-demand/5
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