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In an era when time-crunched consumers favor the ease of superstores or online shopping, store-window design is a lost art. But last May in the Big Apple, 18 Manhattan window-display designers collaborated on The Window Show, a week-long, off-site exhibit organized by the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.
"It's really the first time storewindow design has been so generally and publicly acknowledged," says Barbara Livenstein, head of the museum's public information department. Livenstein and Donald Albrecht, a curator at the museum, co-chaired The Window Show. Tom Beebe, creative director of Paul Stuart (a participating store), served as design liaison.
Fifteen stores on Fifth Avenueincluding Saks Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdale's and Macy's-boasted creative window displays aimed at communicating the importance of design in our daily lives. Participating designers each browsed through Cooper-Hewitt's permanent design collection and chose a creative "point of departure" for their window display-picking anything from an antique baby monitor to ceramic pitchers. The designers then added their own visions to the displays, showcasing their work in...