To celebrate London Fashion Week, Selfridges has partnered with Yell.com to revamp the classic directory, the Yellow Pages, to produce the one-off ‘Yellow Pages, Directory of Now’.

As well as the revamped directory the retailer has also installed a Vogue World newsstand on the shop floor. The installations are part of a campaign to position Selfridges as the go to destination for fashion and culture just in time for London Fashion Week and the new season.

Starting in September and lasting for three months, the 72-page ‘Directory of Now’ is available in stores. The guide is filled with culture focused articles, fashion tips and profiles on Selfridges employees. In addition it includes recommendations of where to visit in London, Manchester, and Birmingham. The publication is also available as an audio download on the Selfridges website ensuring accessibility for all fashion-lovers. 

As part of the campaign specialist newsagent, Shreej, is being taken over by the collaboration to encompass the editorial and fashion-forward legacies of the brands. Other key partners include Versace, Jil Sander, Nina Ricci by Harris Reed, and Martine Rose. Versace has a pop-up in-store running for the month of September, while NewGen has a three-page spread in the directory. All content is underlined by the black and yellow colours that are closely identified with both brands. 

The Yellow Pages has operated as an online database since 2019, but Yell.com has allowed Selfridges the use of its namesake for this one-off release. 

“Yell has evolved a lot since we delivered the final copies of the Yellow Pages in 2019, but we’ll never forget how the business started, and we can’t think of a better brand to bring back those origins with, than Selfridges,” explained Luke Taylor, Co-CEO of Yell Ltd.

Similarities in core branding make the partnership make sense. “The parallels between both businesses go deeper than just the yellow and black branding, as both of us have been a constant in British life for decades now and have always been focused on offering the very best to our customers – be it helping someone to find the perfect outfit, or the ideal business for a variety of needs’’ adds Taylor. 

As part of this campaign, Vogue harnessed the directory to promote its Vogue World event with a pop-up in Selfridges. Marking the start of London Fashion Week, Vogue took over Theatre Royal Drury Lane on the 14th of September, with a high profile show. The show featured a variety of opera, ballet, and theatre performances, as well as a range of famous British faces like Kate Moss and Ian McKellen. 

To celebrate the show Vogue created a kiosk which was similar to newsstands in New York, selling Vogue World merchandise. The pop-up kiosk will run until the 24th of September, in the Accessories Hall of Selfridges, Oxford Street. Not only can shoppers buy merchandise, but they can also sit and read the September Vogue issue while sipping on a coffee - a fun glimpse into fashionable New York.

The ‘Directory of Now’, and Vogue World newsstand bring together imaginative concepts to position Selfridges as the one-stop-shop for all things fashion. From the nostalgia of bringing back the Yellow Pages, to giving shoppers the feeling of reading Vogue in a New York park, the campaign demonstrates the undeniable cultural influence of Fashion Week.