Retail’s most recognisable face, Mary Portas, was on hand to crown the best visual merchandisers in the UK at live window dressing competition, skillVM.
The Queen of Shops was special guest at the competition, which saw five teams of professional visual merchandisers and five teams of students battle it out in a live competition to be named skillVM 2010 champions.
In a hugely competitive and close-run event, held at the In-Store Show in London’s Olympia on Tuesday 29th and Wednesday, 30th June, the results were:
GOLD - Lesley Armstrong and Cora Kavanagh - Hugh Baird College, Merseyside
SILVER - Chi Ho Lai and Sze Ho Wu - London College of Fashion
BRONZE - Polly Crane and Hannah Cook – University of Glamorgan, Cardiff
GOLD - Lauren Corless and Danielle Cockroft – John Lewis, Trafford, Manchester
SILVER - Adele Marshall and Lisa Ward – IKEA, Belfast
BRONZE - Christine Russell and Gillian Bennett – John Lewis, Glasgow
The contestants made it to the UK finals after a long process which launched back in October 2009. By April, they had submitted initial designs on the theme ‘Future of Retail: 2060, before the best 17 student teams built scale models of their windows at heats hosted by the University of Glamorgan in Cardiff in May. The top five retailers were selected from their design submissions alone.
At the final, all ten teams built full-scale windows in four hours and with a budget of just £200, before pitching their design to the judging panel. To add to the pressure, it was all done under the full gaze of thousands of retail industry insiders.
Handing out the awards, Mary Portas told the audience: “I think today retail needs VM more than ever and it’s the visual merchandisers who bring a bit of magic to retail. Don’t underestimate the power of visualisation. There is enormous creativity and I say to retailers, let your display teams sing.
“I get asked to do about 30 or 40 of these presentations a month and I turn most of them down, but I believe in this and I believe in the future of it. To all of you retailers, listen to the creatives!”
Student gold medallist Lesley Armstrong said: “I feel great, happy, overwhelmed and surprised. The other four teams were really good and it must have been hard for the judges to choose a winner.”
Retailer gold medallist Lauren Corless from John Lewis, said: “I’m absolutely over the moon. We’ve worked so hard and all the other competitors were absolutely brilliant. It was great to come here and see our window come to life. We are so passionate about our jobs, we love the company we work for, and this prize is a fantastic bonus.”
Head Judge Alan Westcott added: “Competition is good - it’s what retailers do every day of the week. skillVM is a mini version of the high street all brought into one arena so people can see what’s taking place. The presentations this year from both the students and retailers have exceeded our expectations – it’s just awe-inspiring.
 “We have had so many people talking to us at the event, including some big name retailers and suppliers wanting to know how they can get involved and whether skillVM will carry on next year – the answer to that is ‘yes it will’.”
skillVM, was created in 2008 by Skillsmart Retail, the Sector Skills Council for Retail, to show off the wealth of talent within retail, which remains the UK’s number one professional sector with three million employees.
Full competition details, images from skillVM and information on how to get involved in next year’s competition, can be found at www.skillVM.com.
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