#jill manoff

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Spotted via The IHA/International Housewares Association’s 12.9.20 SmartBrief:

Writing for Glossy (www.glossy.co), Jill Manoff shares five New York department stores’ responses to pandemic realities with their updated holiday window displays. Maintaining some traditions can be more important than ever in stressful times, which Bergdorf Goodman, Bloomingdale’s, Saks Fifth Avenue, Macy’s and Nordstrom rightfully recognized. But some plans (and some of that planning and work underway a full year ahead of time) were altered this year, eliminating touch-interactive features, switching to live-streamed and online events for the displays’ unveilings, or benefiting different charities and honoring first responders and essential workers.    

Here in Chicago the traditional department store window displays aren’t what they once were. After all, State Street in The Loop is no longer a department store row lined by Marshall Fields, Carson Pirie Scott, Wieboldt’s, Goldblatt’s, Sears and Montgomery Ward. Elsewhere, some Michigan Avenue and Gold Coast street level merchants remain on guard with board-up supplies in the event of social unrest. And, after all, it’s difficult to maintain recommended social distancing when you’re squeezed into crowds congregating in front of holiday window displays.

Just more flashy holiday marketing? Oh, don’t be a Scrooge. New York, Chicago and any other city or business getting dressed up for the season sounds good to me right now. Here, the city’s aglow with lights and decorations from Daly Plaza to the Magnificent Mile, and that’s a good thing in a year when some ‘normal’ is warmly welcomed.