WINDOW DRESSING: The Art of New York City Holiday Windows 2011

"It's the most wonderful time of the year". Or, at least the most visually interesting time to stroll around town and "window shop"!  All of the big (and small) department stores have had elves working overtime creating artful, memorable "windowscapes" to celebrate the holiday season. And the millions of visitors who come to New York city in December are taking them in, in record numbers, according to number takers at busy city intersections. Some smaller shops boasted truly creative ideas--such as non-stop snowfall--while the large stores--where there seemingly is endless budget for holiday decor--the displays were theatrical, breath taking and chock-a-block full of gifts to dream of finding under a tree or near a minorah.

Here are a few of the outstanding windowscapes around town:

At Bergdorf Goodman, some of the windows were themed for different materials.
This vignette, an homage to artful metal work. 

Bergdorf Goodman's on Fifth Avenue, always a perennial favorite, showcased this
winter wonderland in shades of white which seemed
to be Snow Queen and Bride, all in one.

Bergdorf's long and the short of it window, a long-necked mannequin
in a white mini and an embellished giraffe.

Revisiting last years underwater theme,  a bathing-caped vision in an Alexander
 McQueen mini dress treads carefully in a mosaic blue coral landscape.

Woodworking was the theme of the this window, which had wooden 

art mannequins, a carved monkey, curl of wood shavings, wood carving

 tools and on the mannequin some fabulous wood-patterned pants. 

Detail of the extraordinary dogs, panda and rooster all made of cut paper.

Marchesa black and white lace gown posing amidst a menagerie
of animals all made out of cut paper.

A window of jewelry display at Bergdorf Goodman. 

A taxidermied squirrel rides a bicycle over snow dusted rooftops at Bergdorf Goodman Men's Store.

Punctual Polar Bears and snow dusted vintage alarm clocks.

Bergdorf men's store had windows themed with different personality traits.
Trustworthy shows an oversized kitty cat,
leading four small dogs on leashes. 

The Mighty Lion sits atop his desk modeling what all high powered lions of industry
should be sporting: silk ties with a conservative, red and blue patterns.

A stack of silver raindeer cabinets displaying mens wear
at Ermenegildo Zegna store on Fifth Avenue.

The biggest wreath hangs over the main entrance of Tiffany & Co.

Tiffany designed elaborate carousel-toppers
 to frame their artful windows.

This Tiffany window was of a tiny reproduction of Fifth Avenue. One little detail I loved
about some of the windows, like this one, is there is a mirror-element to it, so that
the spectator becomes part of the scene (like Max in the lower left hand corner.)

H.Stern's windows used colorful vintage illustrations for their jewelry displays.

At Fendi, the exterior of the store is wrapped up in Santa Belts, made of white lights with
icicles hanging from them.

A mannequin in the window of Fendi lounges on a red chaise in an artists studio with clutches and bags resting on paint boxes and side tables laden with brushes. The viewer participating in the scene, this time as the artist.

This store cleverly used mirrored paint to create the stores signature on the windows, and
portions of the viewer is reflected back to them as they gaze in.

Ralph Lauren's children store on Fifth Avenue used a stage set patterned after a Tramp Art picture frame.

Prada windows in Soho had an exotic travel theme.

Paul Smith window in Soho had a wall of vintage greeting cards as a backdrop.

Windows of the New York Academy of Art had wreaths embellished with gold spray painted tubes of paint and brushes.

The center drawing of Santa inspired the window idea at L & T.

Balls of yarn stretching out from oversized knit snowflakes at children's shop, Crew Cuts in Tribeca.

The theme for Bloomingdales windows this year was to pay tribute to an icon of the season: the shopping bag. They chose several particularly artful and popular designs of past years, like this one from 1978 of Santa
and Rudolf ice skating under the Brooklyn Bridge. Their high-tech experience add on this year was at every window viewers had the option to be photographed while gazing at the windows and have their photo be included on Bloomingdales social media page. For the shy--or those who have called in sick to work today---simply avoid standing on the star on the sidewalk and you won't be snapped.

Bloomingdales windows were tributes to holidays of the past. This one had a  spaceman-Santa flying over the skyline of NY city with just a jet pack and a bag of toys tied to his waist with a long red ribbon.

The last window I got to see of the season was the most famous, Lord and Taylor's. 
Their theme this year was inspired by a single, simple drawing by a child that they 
found in their archives.  They posed the question to children (isn't Christmas all 
about children?) "What does Christmas look like?"
 and asked them to submit a drawing of what they imagined. The works were beautiful, 
and all created in different mediums, colored pencil, crayon, collage. The windows
 themselves were designed with their usual fabulous miniature winter wonderland 
scenes, but also included a lot of "drawn elements" such as chairs, 
houses and characters driving by in taxis. 

A stylish young girl (wearing Uggs and a trapper hat) waves from the
spinning carousel.

The first holiday window I saw this year, Aritzia, had one of the most creative
ideas; that of continual (fake) snowfall coming from on high. It begged for one to stop and gaze in marvel,
then try to figure out the workings of it all, conveniently exposed overhead.  

Sorbet colored wedges and pumps cavort in the snow.

The Parisian patisserie Maison Laduree opened on Madison Avenue and boasted the longest line I came across second only to (of course) F.A. O Swartz, which was a block long.

Swarovski Star hanging over Fifth Avenue at 57th Street day and night.

I'd love to hear about themes of any wonderful windows you've seen this holiday season. Comment and let me know if you have a minute! Happy Holiday!

--Monica Forrestall