Bergdorf Goodman Holiday Windows — an aesthetic delirium
One of New York’s most dazzling traditions is its holiday window displays. Introduced by Macy’s department store in 1874, they were meant to attract excited Christmas shoppers to the store’s goods. It worked so well that soon other department stores followed suit. Alas, these days, most of them have stopped this holiday practice, making holiday window displays pretty much a dying art. But standing strong on the side of holiday cheer, Saks, Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s, and, of course, Bergdorf Goodman still build amazing handcrafted, over-the-top scenes each year.
Creating Bergdorf Goodman holiday windows takes ten months, involves over 100 people, and requires about three weeks to install. These displays are so important that they constitute at least 60 percent of the store’s yearly workload. A team of designers, prop artists, installers, and carpenters transform those Fifth Avenue windows into a whimsical holiday fantasy. The creative mastermind behind the store’s world-famous holiday windows is David Hoey, who’s been creating Bergdorf’s windows for over 20 years. According to him, “The purpose of all of this is to induce aesthetic delirium.”
The art of window design dictates that the design should work for different scales: the windows should be well visible and impressive from across the street or from a passing car, as well as at a close-up. The windows are meant to entertain and dazzle. They are purposely overloaded with decor, making it too much to see in one viewing. The idea is that one would often come back to it, always finding something new. Bergdorf presents its windows as a work of art and a destination.
The 2023 year windows are themed “Isn’t It Brilliant,” Mr. Hoey described as “bright lights, bright ideas, bright horizons, everything brilliant.”
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