NYC Style Through the Looking Glass
The Windows of Jay Kos, Kate Spade, Tom Ford, TAGG, Yoya.....And What I Found
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| *Remembering Elaine Stritch and The Ladies Who Lunch |
**I'm not strange, weird, off, nor
crazy,
my reality is just different from
yours.
New York City is a window shopper’s paradise and
Fifth Avenue from 49th to 60th Street is its main stage. During the Christmas
holidays its store windows sparkle with colorful and festive displays, some
traditional, some contemporary and some avant-garde but all capture the wonder
and beauty of the season in a unique New York Style.
Crowds swell in front of the huge windows of Saks,
Bergdorf Goodman, Lord & Taylor further south on Fifth at 39th
Street, and Macy’s gargantuan Herald Square store at 34th. Street.
On this stretch of Fifth you will also find the
U.S. flagship stores of Tiffany, Cartier, Armani, Gucci, Versace, Henri Bendel,
Faconnable, FAO Schwarz, and Van Cleef and Arpel.
I am not a window shopper. I am city walker who
walks at a brisk pace. I appreciate the magic of an artistically designed
window no matter what time of year. Often I have stopped in midstride drawn by
the hypnotic lure of these movie-like sets
My favorite street for window viewing is Madison
Avenue from 86th
to 63rd Street. Sorry but Barney’s
located at 61st street does not make the cut. Madison Avenue loses it intimacy
and small town feel as one get closer to get to bustling 57th Street, plus the
buildings are much taller.
Most major cities have a street for the luxury or fashion conscious shopper. I have walked several including Milan’s Via Montenapoleone, rue Saint-Honoré
in Paris, the other two fashion capitals of the
world. I have also walked Worth Avenue in Palm Beach and Rodeo Drive in Beverly
Hills.
I first encountered Madison Avenue many years
ago when I walked home after a high school baseball game in Central Park’s
North Meadow. I discovered an avenue with scores of brightly lit windows, filled
with expensive well-tailored and bespoke clothes, shoes, linens, furniture,
antiques and paintings created by celebrated designers. That night I felt as if
I had I had crossed an imaginary line leaving New York City at one corner and
winding up in some far-away place, many stores posted the locations of their
stores worldwide. Madison became
my “yellow brick road.” It did not lead me to OZ but to Paris, London, Milan, Saint-Tropez, Portofino, Geneva, Tokyo, San Paolo, and
Barcelona.
There are several fashion streets and neighborhoods
in the city. Recently, over the course of several days, I searched for fun, stylish
windows. Instead of taking my
standard mental photo I snapped over 200 pictures with my iPhone. I share my fourteen favorite windows. Theys are listed by neighborhood. I have excluded touristy
Fifth Avenue.
Madison Avenue
Loro Piana 748 Madison Ave. near 65th St
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| "Your So Vain" Walking Madison Avenue |
Mallet Antiques 929 Madison Ave. 75th St.
Commode by Jean Royere, France 1950
Pair of Art Noveau Wall Light, Belgium 1900
Pair pf Rosso Levanto Columns 1780
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| "Welcome to My House a Very Fine House" |
Ralph Lauren Madison Ave. at 72nd St.
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| "Madison Avenue I Am Ready for My Closeup" |
Missoni 1009 Madison Ave. 78th St.
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| Opening Night at the Opera |
Tom Ford 845 Madison Ave. bet. 70-71St
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| "Steppin' Out of the Elevator" |
MeatPacking/West Village
431 West 14th St
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| Summer in the Hamptons |
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| Cool Kids of the West Village |
Tiziano Zorzan 69 Eighth Ave. near 14th St.
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| Sunday in the Park with Zorzan |
Nolita
Patricia Field 306 Bowery
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| Get Your Freak On |
Bed Head Pajamas 252 Elizabeth Ave.
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| Mother and Child Pajama Party |
Jay Kos 292 Mott St.
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| What I Saw Through the Looking Glass |
Tribecca
Agatha Ruiz de la Prada 466 Greenwich St.
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| Under the Big Top...Send in the Clowns |
Hell's Kitchen
***TAGG 720 Ninth Avenue 49th St
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| Strut Your Junk...Buns in the Oven |
*Store window photo at the beginning of the article.
Kate Spade 789 Madison Ave 66-67th St.
**Quote: Lewis Caroll, Alice Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass
***Most "Fun" Website - Signals the "new" Hell's Kitchen. Click on TAGG!
**Quote: Lewis Caroll, Alice Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass
***Most "Fun" Website - Signals the "new" Hell's Kitchen. Click on TAGG!
All Photos by Rudi Papiri
