New York Fifth Avenue Windows Incorporate Horses Into Holiday Designs!

By: Brittany Bevis

The extravagant holiday window displays that festoon Fifth Avenue this time of year bring Christmas cheer to the residents of New York City. For many years, visitors have organized their holiday travel plans around the lighting of the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center and to have the opportunity to stroll hand in hand down the sidewalk to marvel at the incredible window decorations.

This year, we discovered that three of the displays feature horses in their holiday themes! Saks Fifth Avenue’s “An Enchanted Experience” recreates traditional fairytales with a modern twist by placing them in iconic NYC locations. Bergdorf Goodman celebrates the arts with windows that highlight themes of literature, architecture, music, dance, film, sculpture, theater, and painting. Finally, Van Cleef & Arpels’ glittering recreation of the french fairytale Peau D’Ane includes an appearance by two brightly colored horses.

#1- Saks Fifth Avenue’s holiday theme of “An Enchanted Experience” kicked off on November 24th at their flagship store at 611 Fifth Avenue at 48th street. The unveiling of the windows was accompanied by great fanfare with a full line of 36 Rockettes, 71,000 lights, 11,000 linear feet of garlands that stretched 30 feet high, and six state-of-the-art 3D projectors.

“This year, everything from the projection and light show to the architectural decor is simply spectacular,” says Mark Briggs, Chief Marketing and Creative Officer for Saks Fifth Avenue. “We have incorporated new, electrifying elements, making it an experience unlike any other…an experience to remember.”

In addition to Rumplestiltskin spinning straw into gold in the subway and Snow White taking a poisoned apple from a cart in Times Square, Rapunzel swings from the Empire State Building by her long golden locks. However, our favorite window features Cinderella arriving at the Saks Fifth Avenue Ball in a horse-drawn carriage. The tableau shows Cinderella in her glorious tiered gown stepping down from a carriage that’s being pulled by a beautiful white horse with orange feathered headpiece.

“We want to leave our audience breathless,” says Marigay McKee, President of Saks Fifth Avenue. “The experience is everything. This year’s An Enchanted Experience promises to yield an experience more grand, more luxurious, and more sensational than New York has ever seen.”

Click here to watch the Saks Fifth Avenue window unveiling.

#2- Bergdorf Goodman’s window display, located at 754 Fifth Avenue at 58th street, is a true celebration of the arts. Individual windows highlight literature, architecture, music, dance, film, sculpture, theater, and painting. Our favorite window, created by David Hoey and the Bergdorf Goodman Visual Team, is the one with the painting theme.

Within the almost entirely black and white scene, a rider wearing a custom hand-painted Dolce and Gabanna gown, sits astride a giant wooden horse. The pair looks down at a small color painting of the same scene with the horse trotting across the page in vibrant fuchsia.

Click here to watch a YouTube video that shows the Bergdorf Goodman windows.

#3- Van Cleef & Arpels’ interpretation of the classic french fairytale, Peau D’Ane, inspired set designer Douglas Little to create magical snowy vignettes that reflect different key points in the tale. Our favorite scene features the incredible Promesse D’Amour earrings and ring and Rose Marine necklace that are flanked by two rearing horses, one in red and one in blue. The quote that accompanies this scene is: “The wedding day was announced and guests were invited from every corner of the world.”

Click here to watch a behind-the-scenes video of the making of the Van Cleef & Arpels windows.

Click here for more information about the jewels highlighted in the Van Cleef & Arpels window displays.

Although other window displays didn’t include horses, many incorporated animals of all kinds into their final designs.  Lord & Taylor’s holiday windows explored the fantastical interior of an enchanted mansion on Christmas Eve. Dapper mice dressed in their finest scurried up a bookshelf ladder to decorate a Christmas Tree in The Heritage Gallery. In the Hall of Wisdom, wall portraits of cats, dogs, and even a giraffe came to life thanks to video wall animation technology that was used for the first time this year.

Did you know that over 250,000 people pass by the Lord & Taylor windows daily from Thanksgiving to Christmas! These incredible displays were created by a team of more than 50 people and took nearly nine months to complete. Because the sets are so large, (weighing up to 2,000 lbs) they were created in a secret underground workshop before being moved up to street level and placed on hydraulics.

Also, down at the Barney’s display, a giant 8-foot-tall, 6-foot wide, talking, steampunk owl resides within the Truth window. The unique creation is a mixture of live performance and mechanical ingenuity set to tune of musical group Pentatonix. Another window features a winter wonderland complete with deer and a feisty spray painting squirrel.

Can’t be there in person but would still love to see all the windows? USAToday has compiled an interactive video tour. Click here to view the map.