Holiday Windows 2017: Bergdorf Goodman

It's should surprise no one that my favorite holiday windows this year were—for the fifth year in a row—Bergdorf Goodman's. The Bergdorf windows are always so stunning that I can't imagine another store besting them—they're essentially just in competition with their own past window designs at this point. I wouldn't declare this year's the best ones I've ever seen (I still give that honor to my very first Bergdorf windows, although you never forget your first), but they're an improvement on last year's and at least as good as 2014's and 2015's.

This year's theme is "To New York with Love" and each window features a different beloved New York City cultural institution: The American Museum of Natural History, the Museum of the Moving Image, the New York Botanical Garden, the New York Philharmonic and the New York Historical Society. The windows take all year to create, and are constructed with a wide range of materials including papier-mâché, neon, video, resin casting, fiber arts, digital displays and rhinestones.

Each window was designed in a different style to reflect the architecture and mission of its respective institution. They're all wonderful, but the one that really wowed me was the American Museum of Natural History window and its bedazzled dinosaur skeletons. Of course I'd pick the one filled with (fake) bones, but if you covered anything in that many rhinestones it would be hard not to take notice.

It's not difficult to be charmed by such an expensive, flashy love letter to some of my favorite places in my favorite city, but I doubt there is another store that could ever match the Bergdorf window displays in scope, vision or execution. I actually went into Bergdorfs for the first time last week—their bathroom is very clean!—and although I quickly discovered that I can't afford anything, it's nice that anyone walking by can enjoy the quality and glamour of Bergdorfs for at least a few weeks every year.

✨ Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas! ✨

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