Department store windows are one of New York’s great holiday pleasures, and FIT students and faculty are gifting their talent and good will throughout the city this season with a variety of window installations.
One of this season’s coolest displays was co-designed by Carlos Aponte, adjunct instructor, Illustration, for Bergdorf Goodman’s Fifth Avenue flagship, which has dedicated its windows to New York City institutions such as the New-York Historical Society, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Museum of the Moving Image. For a very red homage to the New York Philharmonic, Aponte drafted and crafted the design with David Hoey, Bergdorf’s senior director of visual presentation. The result—a conductor surrounded by pulsating neon instruments—is drawing crowds.
For the third consecutive year, Visual Presentation and Exhibition Design (VPED) students have designed, made, and installed holiday windows in Harlem stores. Harlem Holiday Windows 2017 spans the corridor of Lenox Avenue/Malcolm X Boulevard between 117th and 127th streets. This year’s theme depicts traditional Harlem celebrations that take place throughout the year: Three Kings Day, Christmas, Hanukkah, Loíza, Ramadan, Kwanzaa, and Harlem Week. Seven teams of two students each designed displays for seven businesses—Grandma’s Place in Harlem, Harlem Coffee Company, Harlem Haberdashery, Harlem Shake, Settepani Restaurant, Valerie Signature Salon, Whole Foods Market, Corner Social, and Chez Lucienne. The project was done in collaboration with Art Crawl Harlem and the Harlem Tourism Board, with the windows on display through January 2.
The iconic Flatiron Building’s “triangle point” window is the scene of a delicious display with a mannequin adorned in a skirt made of white dinner plates and a bodice of white napkins. Perched on a table, she is surrounded by delicacies. This window is the inspiration of VPED students Yoo Jung Lee, Joseph Klaus, and Alexandra D’Alleva. This inaugural display may well become a new tradition.
View more images and learn more about this project on The School of Art and Design blog in “A Memorable Dinner Party at the Flatiron.”