NYC Blog: Men's Fashion, Retail and Visual Merchandising | The Bespoken: For Gentlemen

Christmas Interuptus (Part Three)

Benetton

The United Colors of Benetton has long been bereft of color. For several years, they have solely relied on neutrals to lure their customers. They have opted to become yet another plain Jane retailer for the consumer who wants safe traditional looks in colors that will never date, or disappear. It’s LL Bean with an edge. This is a strategy that many retailers have exercised. Thus far, with a tenuous economy, and customers reticent to reach into their pockets to purchase a color that looks great this season, but might look passé next, are most welcome.

This year’s holiday trim bears out their hypothesis. It is an abstracted conical shaped, read: Christmas tree, done in tiers of ivory colored wool. The fabricated tree incorporates elements of macramé, Irish knits and pom-pom balls swags like garland. It looks hand made, and sort of crafty, but in reality is manufactured. Unfortunately, for the retailer, it is still more interesting than the drab garments.  If they sold the tree, I might have purchased one.

Aldo

 
Skipping Christmas altogether Aldo heads immediately into New Years with its faux disco graphics of a comely young woman and a bespeckeled, albeit attractive nerdy (think Parker Brothers, “Dream Date”) young man presumable at some sort of a retro party. References to 80’s hairstyles, Madonnaesque clothing and hipster suits take us to a karaoke like gathering where the guests are flanked by (non-working) vintage utilitarian lights dipped in silver sparkles. What pray tell is the point of investing in lights that do not work?

The Aldo windows are representative of advertising as display. It is sort of an easy way out for retailers. It is really “old hat”.  Seldom is advertising so great that it replaces actual trim. Shoes are evident in the window, but not in the graphic which is the central element. The window becomes a magazine ad with as much investment. I just turn the page.

Shoes could be such a great category of merchandise to display if someone would just exercise some imagination.

Banana Republic

A store that I frequent. A store that sells better clothing. A store that understands “fit”. A store that Tim Gunn loves! Banana Republic has so much going for it…except its windows. I wanted and expected so much more. Overall the windows seem tired and blasé. There are white silhouetted leafless tress, standees, to suggest a forest like atmosphere and just a few strands of mirrored Payette’s are stung on monofilament, meant to suggest shimmery light or snowflakes. However, on Fifth Avenue, that’s right Fifth Avenue, with it street traffic, luxury address, and huge oversize Rockefeller Center windows there were as few as two tress and three stands of Payette’s in each window. I understand that budgets are tight, but this was just miserly.

I did walk to the side windows where at least I found one crescent moon with a seated female that filled the window proportionally.

Bergdorf Goodman

More reliable than the College of Cardinals is the Visual Merchandising team at Bergdorf Goodman’s. Like the Pope, they are infallible, perhaps sanctimonious, but deservedly so. Each window is better than the next. Each window is distinctive and idiosyncratic. However, collectively they coalesce. The narrative is about the magic of travel, whether in a Ford Model A with helicopter fan, or a classic Schwinn two-wheeler dripping in ice. I will not belabor the point with my interpretation, but instead share just a few of the windows with you.

If you are ever on Jeopardy and the category is Pot Pourri, Alex Trebek might ask you… “This retailer is said to have the best windows in the world“, the answer will be “Who is Bergdorf Goodman’s?”

Chanel

Chanel like every other retailer is incorporating paper (trend alert!) as a central design element. It works, but only half-heartedly. The Christmas trees are okay, and looked like oversized folded doilies, but who under the age of forty really knows what a doily is? The windows are clad with doileyesque PVC vinyl adhesive transfers of doilies and the back wall is illuminated with a laser cut lighting gel of a superimposed doily. Its all works in concert. It is proportionate, composed and balanced. The clothing is knot, boucle and wooly, if not at all lacy. However, for a luxury retailer the “come away” is not really opulent or glamorous, it is somewhat reductive. It has charm, but lacks holiday spirit or magic.

I adore Mr. Lagerfeld. I admire Chanel. However, this holiday widow is too juvenile and naive. Chanel continues to look more that Bolton’s.

Anthropologie

A store that really needs to be on the top of every visual merchandiser’s radar.  Once again, Antrhroplogie continually creates the best windows. The visual merchandisers are so talented that the corporate office supports their creative endeavors. Allowing each store to “tweak” (personalize) its windows. Now that is confidence!

I just love the charm, the hand made props, the ability to story tell. The windows mesmerize customers and make you want to enter inside. An inside where the message is even more fully developed.

I love the sun drenched green pine boxes in dozens of shapes and sizes, banked to look like a Christmas tree. Inside each box was an item for sale or one of Antrhropologies vintage collectibles. This window is the personification and the physical embodiment of what the retailer represents. Individuality, design, nostalgia and cleverness.

If this was not good enough. The front windows play with scale. Anthropologie creates paper pinecones made from recycled cardboard product. Oversize fir branches with straw broom needles and a pinecone almost ten feet tall made out of burlap and flour sacks will tell you that this retailer is special!

Hugo Boss

With huge plate glass windows before them, and windows that open up into a beautiful downtown interior, Hugo Boss makes an interesting choice to work… small. There below you is a miniature of a snowy mountain flanked by fir trees with stuffed animals cavorting, having fun, making angels in the snow and sliding down a hillside on their bellies,  (a conveyor belt really). If you are an eight year old shopping in the meatpacking district, you will enjoy this window. If you are an adult, you will ask yourself yeah, it is cute, but what has it got to do with the store? Perhaps at Christmas time everything does not have to make sense.

Independent Shops

There is always good work to be celebrated. It is affirming that so often small stand-alone shops with little to no visual budgets or dedicated merchandisers create some of the best windows. These windows reflect the point of view of their idiosyncratic owners and not some dictate of the corporatized conglomerate concerned with “brand equity” Here are a few stores that really liked.

Christmas Interuptus (Part Two)

Marc Jacobs



If not for Marc Jacobs Bleeker Street in NYC might be a ghost town. At last count, Mr. Jacobs had about seven stores in Greenwich Village alone. His stores are more prolific than Starbucks. Regardless, Jacobs’ boutiques are either not appointed with holiday trim, or done with great restraint, and absent from anything expected, read: traditional. This year finds Chanelesque plexi crystals rising out of the floor and flanked with glittering B-lighted backgrounds reminiscent of the Jorel sequence in “Superman: the Movie“. Periodically a live model in a loose fitting silver sheath (not sold by Jacobs) poses in an oversized white afro with customers. (Trend alert! Oversize afros are the tihng this season) Yeah, I did not quite get it either. However, I just accepted it. The customers are photographed, and a quilt like collage of impromptu photos line the front windows almost framing the store. It is interactive and fun, but what does it mean?

Across the street in BookMarc, Jacobs’ bookstore (the former neighborhood anchor of “The Autobiography Bookstore") has an illuminated moon hanging over a collection of fashion and photography books. Adjacent are gold clustered crystals. (Trend Alert: Crysyals are  a thing this year too...go figure) The tone is sci-fi, icy, and cold, devoid of life and humor, it is quixotic, if not whimsical. 

In four of the seven Jacobs locations is no product placed in the windows. So what pray tell is Jacobs telling us? 

Just up the street, is Jacobs’ equally bemusing costumy fleece polar bear with a graphic of Marc Jacobs dressed as the polar bear too.  Jacobs looking so uncharacteristically apple cheeked to not be readily recognized. Is that him? I am still uncertain. This is not the buffed and bearded Jacobs in his naked and naughty “Bang” advertisements.

Collectively the windows are confounding. Fun, perhaps, but with an opportunity to tell us something, to make us feel something, Jacobs has opted to keep us guessing.

Ralph Lauren/Madison Avenue

In this, the newest Lauren location, Lauren’s Women Collection is so important that it is sheathed in a brand new Beau Arts limestone clad mansion befitting French royalty. No expense was spared! The store is simply sublime, with no imperfections. The edifice is in fact as immaculate as Mary.

The windows are beautiful, but represent interesting choices for a company whose reputation is its lifestyle, its aspirational imagery and its stranglehold on its indoctrination to luxury. The windows are clearly reminiscent of Bergdorf Goodman’s. They are fastidious, and so opulent they look like a Merchant & Ivory film. It is all done very well, but not as well at Bergdorf’s. The windows seem almost too thought out, too artfully composed. The mannequins are beautiful. Maybe too beautiful and therefore devoid of any real depth.

While the windows are breathtaking, the store ultimately cuts corners. The foliage looks plastic and waxy. The gold trim is sprayed painted whereas Bergdorf’s would have hand gilt every leaf. Yes, God is in the details. 

Ralph Lauren Rugby/Lower Broadway

 
In this location, Lauren’s Rugby line is sold. Recycling old props, found items and Laurens ability for storytelling plays out with great success. The windows are executed beautifully. What Lauren does, they do well. The oversize white animals and trim create a fairy tale like setting. The clothing reads beautifully, and there’s almost a sense of choreography that Balanchine would appreciate with swans, bears, Roman numeral clock dials, unicorns, strung pearls and snowflakes filing the windows with impact and intent. The intent is clear, it says, “Look at how magical our clothing is too“. Lauren’s merchandisers are among the best riggers and pinners in the business. It‘s a lost art. The clothing fits on the Rootstein mannequins like it was couture, and not ready to wear. The question now remains, where I can find a tailor who can alter a tartan dinner jacket to look as sharp! Rest assured that more pins, clips and wires go into the effort than can be purchased at Hecht’s in the Garment District. Kudos to the merchandisers’ downtown.

Dylan’s Candy Bar

 

If the Apple does not fall far from the tree, then Dylan Lauren with her usual charm has created a lovely window with an oversize marshmallow couple aping a snowman and his Mrs. (or is that Ms.?) They are adorable  in their strung candy necklaces and peppermint candy buttons. No trick is missed by the visual merchandisers. It is very clever! The props are really fun, and very artfully executed.

Aside the marshmallow couple is a collection of penguins fishing with gummy worms for gummy fish. It is really smart. Dylan’s Candy Bar gets mileage and more than a few double entendres out of its confectionary classification. It reminds the shopper that candy is fashionable. Indeed, candy just like clothing comes into and out of fashion. I remember my grandmother serving ribbon candy. I doubt that anyone under forty will even know what that was.

The windows displayed a kind of confidence. Not overdone or cloying. Dylan Lauren, you are your father's best ambassador, you reach directly to your customer. I an ever so envious of you.

Moschino

Always irreverent, always humorous, and with tongue in cheek Moschino dishes up another brilliantly executed window. Yes, the weather outside is dreadful. Seasonal, but dreadful! However, here we are presented with a tropical sequence with Santa’s suntanned elf, a reindeer and a snowman presumable relaxing in a sun-drenched beach in Aruba or Hawaii. You will note a hottie in red heels has left her cabana chair and beach tote to take a dip. The snowman is of course melting with a smile made of coal. Moschino knows we are stuck in New York, commuting to our families in the Bronx, Boston and Bergen County and that we are dreaming of anything, but a white Christmas. Lucky us, our wish was not granted, as we are currently under two feet of snow. The windows have a healthy contempt for the status quo, which is exactly why we live Moschino.  This is a retailer who knows who they are.

Tiffany

 

Tiffany’s is flawless. We expect perfection and usually receive it. This years storytelling windows are poetically captured in text. It is the story of “The Bluebird of Happiness“, set against a diorama of books made into castles, tress and villages. The detail is stunning. It’s crafty, handmade, and reminds us that the simple material of paper when used by a master‘s hands can appear luxurious and opulent. The lighting is beautifully set to replicate Tiffany’s signature color of Robin’s egg blue. The windows are simple, dear and magical. Each window leaves you wanting to linger on the next. Luckily, there are six windows to peer into. Will you buy diamonds, saffire’s or rubies this winter? It is unlikely, but Tiffany’s promotes such good will and holiday spirit that you might be dreaming that some day you will receive a beautiful blue box underneath your Christmas tree. Alas, I guess Santa felt I was not that good this year.

Saks Fifth Avenue

 

Saks is a store I hold in the highest esteem. This year’s windows are a far sight sight better than last year’s juvenile exploration of “The Birth of a Snowflake”.   I would like to give Saks a rousing thumbs up. Like to…that is. While the improvement is great, there is much left to be questioned.

I do not understand the frightful little girl with pink hair and the sex doll like lips. I do not understand the bubble wand  whichis a Star of David. She creepy little girl was just woefully distractive. The batting meant to look like snow was poorly done, with not a flake or sparkle to make it look real. It was just cheap looking.

The white abstracted and semi abstracted mannequins worked into the windows seemed like an after thought and set against the hyper-realistic Rootstein mannequins worked against the aesthetic of the windows. It simply took me out of the story. It was schitzophreic.

Lest I be accused of being a Scrooge. There was much to be admired. When the windows worked, they worked very well. There was movement, walls opened, things rotated, things were revealed. There was something for kids, yet the windows were sophisticated. The clothing was beautiful, just magical, and fit in seamlessly with the great theatrical props. Saks understands that clothing is costume. Praise them!.I loved the illuminated octopus tentacles, and the suspended mannequin draped in a silver mermaid gown festooned with opalescent bubbles. I adored the Jules Verve like submarine and the aquatic underwater effect. The lumbering mannequin elephant was a terric piece of artistry. The windows referenced Art Nouveau, Steampunk and “The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.” Great, gretat and great again!

A great amalgam of images that winds up with a dress worm by Lady Gaga. Everyone is fascinated by her. Saks gets it!

Overall the Saks windows were a lot to absorb and digest. Each window worked alone and the overall narrative was an interesting journey. It's an A for effort and a B+ for execution with a C- for concept.

Dunhill

Animal photography by Steven Meisel works in concert with this classic luxury retailer. It is a great example of how a window does not need to rely on holiday trim or false sentimentality. The statement is articulate. The close of up of the horse and bird make us aware of the beautiful textures found in nature, whether it’s an equine coat polished like brass or a red throated English sparrow's ruffled feathers in time-lapse photography. The corollary to Dunhill’s superior fabrics and textures is evident. You look at the cashmere and leather with more than scrutinizing eyes. It places the man made and manufactured garment into the natural order. It elevates the clothing to artistry befitting an excellent photographer like Meisel. It is sexy. It is hip. It’s classic. It’s Dunhill.

Express

Hardly groundbreaking or innovative, Express at least pulls together traditional clusters of Christmas balls made into ad-hoc snowflakes. The bright green colors support the colorful fashion story and make an attractive statement. I love Expresses saturated clors, which are not for the faint hearted. In a retail world of kacki, olive  navy blue and grey lime, coral and plum are so welcome. Did it work? Indeed, I did purchase a bright yellow and chocolate brown fitted shirt. In a season of bland and vanilla choices the colorful clothing was a welcome alternative.

The Naked Cowboy

Burr! It is cold out there, but in Times Square the Naked Cowboy, a New York institution stands without a single goose pimple. (Not that I checked, but I would not mind being asked!)  No, he is not really naked, but close enough to risk arrest for indecent exposure. Then again, the mannequins in the windows at Victoria’s Secret are less covered. The Naked Cowboy wears a cowboy hat, cowboy boots, a few well-placed tattoos, a white filmy thong, and a guitar. He smirks, smiles, cajoles ad plays the part of a bad boy. Tourists line up to pose. He is buffed, built, bulked out and bulging. He once ran for Mayor. However, I cannot imagine Michael Bloomberg trading places. A character among many characters in a neighborhood littered with billboards of buffed men promoting cologne, clothing and Broadway shows. His real name is Robert John Burck and he had his own website. He’s looks awful toned for a forty year old. He is smarmy and charming if you like that type. Reality TV has not beckoned. However, I have! 

Fabulous Fit: Noble Persuits

 

They were talented fashion designers frustrated by the lack of well-made dress forms in the industry. Antediluvian dress forms with odd measurements and proportions that seemed to bear no resemblance to the real human beings for whom they were designing. Together they shared a dream to create a well-made and proportionally correct dress form. A noble pursuit if ever there was one. They used the best materials like imported linen that feels soft to the touch for their casings. They received patents on their innovative technology, and raised the standards for how the most perfunctory dress forms were made (or at least should be made).

In fact, their patented “Fitting System” is perhaps the most indispensable tool that a designer has at their disposal, with it, even a mediocre dress form can be sized to a quarter of an inch of anyone’s precise measurements. We all know that people come in different heights, and weights, but might wear the same size. Case in point, take three women who each wear a size 12, but one is 6’ tall, another is 5’7” and one is 5’ 2”, each weighs a different amount, one woman had an ample bosom, another has a wide waist and the third has a larger derriere. Their measurements and proportions are all different, but they wear the same size, but not one of them has an ideal “fit”. With the Fabulous Fit “Fitting System” of custom silicone pads and covers, they can create a dress form that is identical to their body. Brilliant!

 
I’m not a namedropper, but Carolina Herrera, Chanel, Eddie Bauer, Escudo, the Gap, Isaac Mizrahi, Levi Strauss, Marc Jacobs, Michael Kors, Neiman Marcus, Nicole Miller, Tommy Hilfiger, and True Religion/Kids use their forms.

Good work is often not appreciated. Great work is often unrewarded. Well this is a happy story with a happy ending.

Fabulous Fit will cease their dress form production shortly, and marketing their “Fitting System” worldwide and you the reading public now have the last opportunity to pick up a dress form. Items are being sold off bit by bit, and I hope anyone interested in a quality product at or below cost will contact the company toll free at 800.853.9644 or visit their websites at www.dressformsonline.com www.fabulousfit.com for what is sure to become a prized possession.

 

Christmas Interruptus

 
 
It’s here; it’s out, it’s up, and it’s Christmas. It’s good; it’s great, its glorious, and its retail. The holiday store window represents the most exciting (visually) windows of the year. In fact, it’s my favorite time of year. Holiday windows are like a litmus test, it tells us just how the retailer feels and presumes we feel too. Hmmm…

This is the first portion of a multi-piece series on the New York scene which I’ll share with you over the course of the next few weeks.

Christmas may be weeks away, but there are identifiable trends, design concepts that we already see. It’s always interesting how certain ideas are repeated on the retail landscape. Do great minds think alike? Holidays window are usually top secret, even wikileaks doesn’t know what Saks or Macy’s are planning. Given the diversity of retailers, the broad merchandise categories, and the wide gap in price points, is downright amazing that there are universal symbols repeated again and again. Like luggage, ladders, antique light bulbs, two-dimensional white reindeer and two dimensional (flat) trees used with great frequency. Other things that come up are classic references to interior architectural elements, like recessed paneling and turn of the century changing screens, but all done in dead blood reds, very vampire chic. There is the inevitable preponderance of grey merchandise, grey being the new neutral (actually, it’s not new at all). Personally, I love charcoal, ash, slate and graphite, but it’s all grey in the wash.

Retailers are taking a somber tone, almost austere. There is a movement towards the non-flamboyant. Safety first, vanilla second. Mannequins are seated, sober and non-celebratory. They lack movement or any form of activity. They stand still as if they are waiting for Godot.  The mood could be described as “relaxed elegance” which is a euphemism for looks expensive, sells moderate and made cheaply. Regardless, windows are serious. Gone is whimsy, bye-bye! Absent is a sense of humor or merriment. Disappeared is romance. Is this a reflection of the times? Clearly the windows are not being dressed by Santa’s elves.

LORD & TAYLOR

Too many people still think of Lord & Taylor as the store where your grandmother shops. Nothing could be further from the truth. Trust me; your grandmother is not that chic or hip. Lord & Taylor has made much headway over the past several years with some great window presentations. However, Lord & Taylor too often gets short shrift and are summarily dismissed. It’s regrettable! The 39^th Street (side) windows features one trend “vintage lighting”, spelling out “SHARE” in caps. It’s carnivalesque, almost steampunky in a clean cut kind of way. Well, what do you expect?  It is Lord & Taylors for *%$#@* sake. The back walls are papered in classic Lord & Taylor illustrated advertising. Back in the day Lord and Taylor set the industry standard for great illustrated advertising (after all Warhol and Kenneth Paul Block illustrated for them). The ads are fabulous, fun, humorous, poignant. The work spans the 1930’s to the 1960’s mostly, and still superior to anything we see today (now I feel nostalgic). I spent almost half an hour just digesting the ads. Lord & Taylor supports the historical imagery with actual miniatures used in their store windows over the subsequent decades. It’s a great retrospective. Naturally their bailiwick is their animated windows. Lord & Taylor always draw crowds, which are affirming to see how important generationally it is to pass on the experience of window gazing. One sees parent and child, ahhhing and ohhhing over miniature skaters, ballerina on tip toe and Santa squeezing down the chimney. Brilliant! 

 
ARMANI

Am I jaded or just green with envy? Yes, to both! It takes a lot to make me want to stop. I walk past the Armani store on fifth Avenue almost every day. Armani has created an unexpected mad tangle of lime green snowflakes, pressed out of plastic and straight out of something from the MoMA gift shop. The color is arrestingly attractive and tells you right way that this special store (and it is!)  is not for the cookie cutter Christmaholic. The snowflakes read like tropical vegetation and are lush. It’s a perfect choice of props for this dark store. Its smart, sharp clever and irritably modern. Kudos!

CARTIER

I adore Cartier because it is Cartier. That being said, this year is pretty much like last year, and frankly that was a disappointment too. Don’t get me wrong, a small gift from Cartier is always welcome. However what was novel last year is “old hat” this year. Granted, lots of people didn’t see last year’s windows presentation, but then again, lots did. In short, last year’s red leather boxes were swapped out with boxes wrapped in a gold striee. Gold is a trend that Louis Vuitton, Tiffany, St. John and Mulberry (to name a few) have latched onto this year. Gold, Gold, Gold! The Cartier box presentations are animated and open slowly to reveal some of Cartier’s most expensive and covetable jewels. As the lid open up pops a black velvet neck form or a ring finger. There are bejeweled necklaces that only Heugette Clark could afford and some toss away million dollar cocktail rings (suitable for your stocking stuffers). Clearly this is a luxury retailer. Cartier reasserts its global presence with its red banners wishing customers a “Merry Christmas”, “Joyeux Noel”, “Buone Feste Natalizie”, and “Feliz Navidad” in many languages including Chinese and Hebrew. 

H. STERN

H. Stern is a retailer that I walk by and have never entered. Maybe it’s their name …”Stern”, as in implacable. Anyway, guess what?  Large ticket items are not on a professor’s salary. H. Stern has a beautiful filigree backdrop, a sort of partridge in a pear tree kind of thing, which is illuminated strategically with sparkly “B” lights. However, the promise of the backdrop is not delivered in the actual merchandise presentation. The opportunity to incorporate birds, trees, turtles and fish which are silhouetted in the filigree is not utilized. Product is laid out, and while lovely, there’s nothing all that special or magical.  

 
BCBG MAX AZIA 

To be candid, BCBG is not a retailer I’m particularly fond of. (Long ugly history!) Anyway, their windows seem half hearted. I see the effort, but the execution is poor. Complicating the matter, BCBG still has unattractive mannequins. By the way…they can’t seem to make up their mind or commit to a mannequin collection...  which makes me think if you can’t commit to a mannequin, how can you commit to a customer? I think BCBG doesn’t know who they are. Hence the indeciveness and lack of brand recognition. But that’s what you get buying Chinese rip-offs.  Anyway the mannequins are set in God awful poses with ppostures that no real female could possible imitate. BCBG also uses a ladder to suggest verticality, or maybe just a way out! BCBG does use yards and yards of sheer white gauze to attempt to create a kind of dreaminess. The clothing is predictably black, maybe more appropriate for a sexy New Years date than having dinner with the in-laws on Christmas Eve. Rest assured some dopy buyer insisted that the trashy cocktail dresses were being promoted for holiday. The reductive black and white is dreary. Maybe I’m wrong, but a little shot of color could go a long way to add some vitality and youth to their presentations. It doesn’t matter what I say, girls in droves will head to BCBG thinking their getting something glamorous.

 
 
COACH 

Okay, this was a surprise. Either I liked it a lot, or not at all. Honestly, I’m not certain. Coach has three windows for product. Each window was dressed identically…or was it? Each window looked identical, like some corporate roll out (yuck), but then I realized that there were subtle differences. I spent about ten minutes on analyzing two windows to see which items were missing or placed differently. It was almost like a “Where’s Waldo” or “Magic Eye”. The windows are artfully composed with lots of merchandise and holiday props, so there was a lot to assess. Here are the windows on Madison Avenue for you to scrutinize. What do you think? Like ‘em or hate ‘em. I’m still on the fence, but the execution is brilliant. 

LALIQUE 

I have a fondness for Lalique. My mother collects it. I grew up surrounded by glassed in cases and side tables with filled with Lalique birds, so I appreciate its artistry and beauty. Lalique is not a store that panders to the season. It’s a store with confidence in the allure and quality of its product. Which is why this green ivy bowl, called “Languedoc” circa 1929, and red rattlesnake “Serpent” vase, circa 1925, are still too gorgeous for words. If Lalique were to deposit some Christmas trim and balls it would destroy this presentation. These items were designed over eighty years ago and are still the most chic, most modern things on all of Madison Avenue. Lalique is about lighting. Lalique is about intensity of color, whether heavily saturated or icy white.

 

BARNEY’S

Last, but not leastly on today’s list is Barneys. “Foodie Holidays”. Okay, not my absolute favorite, it is macabre, but as always Doonan does it! With a finger on the American pulse the windows are a homage to gluttony and America’s newest celebrities… chefs, cooks and gourmands. The windows are disturbing, biting and devilishly wicked (as is Mr. Doonan) Doonan loving skewers Martha Stewart, Paula Dean, Bobby Flay, and the score of reality wannabes. And to note….there are scores; all of whom get the sharp edge of Doonan’s palate knife. The windows are as busy as a Dutch still life and as eerie as Hieronymus Bosch. Interspersed into the paper Mache caricatures is a fashion window of  promoting “Lily” brand products made into the ball gown, so beautifully executed  that it could be worn by Lady Gaga. The credit on the window indicates that Lily paid to cross promote their product. Yes, there’s a Fred’s café inside of Barneys, but a whole window devoted to espresso seems excessive for a fashion store. As always Barneys windows are magical and to wit, every passer by stopped to peer in, most pulling out their cameras. They were compelled to stop.

Join me shortly for another installment of Christmas Interuptus

Fellow Passengers To The Grave…

Harrods Copyright 2010 © Jonathan Baker

I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round, as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.  Charles Dickens

Harvey Nichols Copyright 2010 © Jonathan Baker

Before I begin my series on holiday windows in New York City, I thought I share some of the brilliant window presentations being seen in London this week. The photos come straight from Jonathan Baker www.retailstorewindows.com Jonathan reports it’s freezing in the UK. If so, it hasn’t deterred creative Visual Merchandisers from overwhelming us with wonderful schemes. You can also see additional work in Jonathan’s photo album “Jonathan Bakers London” on the lower right hand of your screens.  I’ll keep my commentary to a minimum as Mr. Baker’s site has great narratives on most of these schemes for you to enjoy. I will say that overall England seems much more modern in its presentations than the windows in New York City.

Matthew Williamson Copyright 2010 © Jonathan Baker

Bally Copyright 2010 © Jonathan Baker

Primark Copyright 2010 © Jonathan Baker

French Connnection Copyright 2010 © Jonathan Baker

Georgina Goodman Copyright 2010 © Jonathan Baker

 

Harrods Copyright 2010 © Jonathan Baker



Selfridges Copyright 2010 © Jonathan Baker



Harvey Nichols Copyright 2010 © Jonathan Baker