Bergdorf Windows Without the Crowds

by baad lamb

If you and your camera want to enjoy Bergdorf's window displays without the massive pre-Christmas crowds getting in the way of your shots (Fifth Avenue sidewalks in December seems to rival Times Square for pedestrian density), here's the trick: Get up pre-dawn on a Sunday morning, pour your coffee in a to-go cup to save time, and arrive on site seven-ish. The tourists have not yet left their hotels, the tour buses are still en route, and the locals are still sleeping or still dancing. You will have the place to yourself (except for the 10 other people who had the same idea!)

Unless you're a professional photographer, shop windows are quite difficult to get full photos of, mostly due to the unavoidable reflection of nearly everything surrounding them. Lights, sky, taxi traffic, other pedestrians, the brightly lit windows across the street, and even yourself, all add complications that only occasionally can be  used to your benefit. So I leave the "whole window" shots to the pros, and instead focus on details, textures, colors, or eye-catching components. Luckily, the Bergdorf's window dressers seems to think that if "less is more", than way more must be excellent! Minimalism is not practiced here.

Even MORE more after the jump...

One vignette was constructed entirely from intricate cut and assembled paper, including a nearly life sized zebra, snakes and a skunk. I see the spiders are now reading them newfangled "Web books".

            

 

Another window was filled with cute, music-making brass monkeys.

Below, some circus mice perform with tigers and bears. A very smartly dressed dog bares his teeth.

I believe the beautiful paper bugs, beetles and butterflies are from a set of accurately sized and colored reproductions that Bergdorf's sells.

 

Across the street in the Men's Store windows, there was nothing ambiguous about it: Men are beasts.

At left, the wolves get fitted for their power suits; on the right, the bull cautiously sits down in the barber chair while the Bear flashes the razor. Not so subtle Wall Street message?

 

Below, the Lion in Winter, and Roly-Poly Fish Head