Behind the Windows

David Hoey, Senior Director of Visual Presentation (the man behind the windows) of Bergdorf Goodman, was too busy to speak with me before I posted the photos of the gorgeous windows but last week he took time out of his exhausting schedule to give me the scoop on what it takes to put these amazing creations together! Enjoy!

"We have been insanely busy for three weeks installing five separate banks of holiday windows. We don't hire an outside company to design or install holiday windows for us, as most of the other big stores do (except Barneys). This is an in-house project through and through. We have only this store to worry about. No secondary stores or corporate rollouts. This allows us to attempt these "couture", one-of-a-kind installations and to work on them to the nth degree. I have a staff of five, but also many devoted freelancers, artists, and stylists who make all this happen. They take a year and half our resources to get ready."

"By now you may have already seen the windows. The theme on Fifth Avenue is "The Seasons" (aka "Calendar Girls"). This year I was going for a truly hallucinatory effect. Like a cross between a trip to a natural history museum and a trip down a rabbit hole. I hope we managed this. We also indulged our penchant for purposely over stuffing the windows with props, antiques, inside jokes, and incident. We love that this maximal effect startles people. The porcelain bird collection in the "Spring" window took more than two years to acquire piece by piece at antique shops, fleamarkets, and ebay."

Work in progress.

The first of many layers.

"There are banks of windows on other streets which are never mentioned by the press. We are very proud of the Men's store windows on 5th Avenue this year." I am definitely going to have to go back and take photos of the men's store soon and thank David and his team for their amazing creativity, hard work and dedication. Their windows are always my favorite for their over the top fantasy and I hope everyone who is able stops by to see their magic in person!

A window on 58th Street

A window on 57th Street

A window on 57th Street

A window on 57th Street