Fortnum’s leads the business of holiday windows in London

In the context of tight consumer sentiment and considerable cost pressure in fashion and luxury retail this year, one category of investment that continues to command attention is the annual Christmas window display. For those of us operating in the design-driven intersection of fashion, lifestyle and retail activation, London’s flagship stores remain a benchmark in how to mobilise visual storytelling, heritage codes and affluent footfall during the holiday season.

Take for instance the recent unveiling at Fortnum & Mason’s Piccadilly flagship: the retailer’s 2025 window theme “Mojo” positions festive craft and imagination front-of-house, with six separate vistas featuring jewel-toned scenography (purples, blues, greens), sculptural creatures (highland cow, narwhal, mice in handmade red coats) and packaging motifs rolled out in window form. The head of Visual Presentation, Sallie Smith, says the creativity is underpinned by the in-house workshop’s hand-painted characters, in a move that clearly aligns with the brand’s luxury-food heritage while borrowing heavily from theatrical design language.

Many will be keen to understand how this kind of investment bolsters brand equity and traffic in an era of digital acceleration and store-footfall fragility; and what is the quantum of spend and return (or at least justification) behind such elaborate artistry?

While much of the luxury fashion world has moved aggressively into omnichannel, brand-experiential and livestream-driven moments, the physical store façade remains a marquee asset, particularly in London’s West End where tourism and international spend still matter.

According to a 2023 survey of UK luxury retailers by The National, international spend remains a vital uplifter, with London’s department stores still leveraging the weak pound and affluent tourist arrivals to drive gift demand.

Meanwhile, analysis in Retail Focus describes how window displays are “strategic rather than decorative” – they are brand front-line ambassadors, generate impulse footfall, and create social-share content.

Cost and scale

Precise figures for individual department-store window budgets remain elusive (many retain confidentiality). That said, a decade old FT quoted top stores spending between USD 20,000 and USD 100,000 per display, which is ancient in today’s cost reality.

More recently, commentary around the UK Christmas market anticipates that UK retailers will do well to generate a 5.8 percent year-on-year uplift in in-store and online sales for November-December. In that context the incremental effect of a standout window must be weighed against the broader cost base of store operations, staffing and digital marketing.

Given the inflationary backdrop, wage cost rises and supply-chain complexity affecting premium retail design, it is reasonable to estimate that elite department-store window programmes in London for 2025 may well run into the high six-figures (GBP) per store in terms of integrated design + installation + ambientation + lighting + social-film roll-out. For a brand-led fashion retailer considering its flagship façade, the parallel spend might range from 250k–500k depending on ambition, mechanical motion, VR/AR elements, and supporting digital activation.

Design meets fashion

Fortnum’s “Mojo” uses handcrafted animal characters and bespoke colour story to communicate luxury craft and festive heritage. Fashion brands may translate this by creating a bespoke narrative that sits outside pure product display and instead engages with culture, story-telling and craftsmanship.

In the Fortnum scheme each animal draws directly from the packaging characters on their seasonal boxes. In fashion that suggests synergy between gifting packaging, store fit-out and façade—so the physical window is not com- separate from the product pack.

The window becomes both a physical magnet and a content piece for social/digital. In a saturated field where luxury houses deploy campaign films, flags and pop-ups, the store-window serves as tangible anchor.

Heritage authenticity

For a store like Fortnum’s (est. 1707) the window leads with craftsmanship and legacy rather than trend-chasing. Fashion brands should ask whether their flagships can similarly link heritage + seasonal storytelling (rather than simply transplanting global campaign visuals).

While footfall and dwell-time can be measured, the incremental revenue specifically attributable to window spend is less clear. Some articles note that retailers increasingly look at “return on experience (ROX)” rather than pure ROI.

Labour, installation windows (often overnight), logistics and bespoke prop-making all carry inflationary risk. Many stores have their window built off-site, shipped and installed overnight.

For fashion houses moving swiftly from season to season, large-scale window programmes demand long lead times, sketches often begin in summer, and inevitably constrain flexibility. Yet in slowing the pace, they also rekindle what retail does best: transform a storefront into a moment of wonder, a fleeting reminder that craft and imagination still have a place in the business of fashion.