My sister & I grew-up loving our family tradition of walking down Fifth Ave. at Christmas time to check out the spectacular holiday windows. My parents were both in the fashion 'biz, so we were brought up with the sense that retailers were like temples . . . sacred places to feed our aspirations and show us glimpses of the divine. And just like midnight mass at St. Patrick's, every Winter these stores give passerby a gift of beauty, free of charge . . . brilliantly conceived portals to something magnificent. Also adding to the excitement, is the fact that all these retail temples are falling over backwards, in a competition for your love and devotion.
So as a gift to those who won't have a chance to stroll down 5th this season, I've taken snaps of the two holiday displays that really left me dazzled. First (naturally), is Bergdorf's Busby Berkeley-inspired BG Follies, with each window displaying a decadent vignette of Art Deco boudoir dollies & mini-mannequins moonlighting as chorus girls, jazz babies, Ziegfeld cuties, and mini-Earl Carroll-esque beauties holding Sally Rand-style feather fans.
Also swoon-worthy were Tiffany & Co.'s windows, which featured delicate miniature scenes of romantic Winter moments a-la Uptown Manhattan. Ingeniously conceptualized by my dear friend, Christopher Young, each scene exhibits a mind-bending attention to detail . . . from the nearly-microscopic Tiffany blue ornaments on the Christmas trees, to the tiny blue box placed in the fluffy snow on the steps leading up to an ornate little Brownstone. Each vignette, an emotional fantasy bringing me back to that wondrous feeling of wiring a dollhouse lamp into a shoebox diorama in 4th grade, and having it actually light-up, making me feel like a magical wizard of electricity. Forget the diamonds . . . through these windows you'll view passion, creative vision, and pure love.
Photos: J.B. Taylor
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