Barneys is a luxury specialty retailer renowned for having the most discerning edit from the world’s top designers, including women’s and men’s ready-to-wear, accessories, shoes, jewelry, cosmetics, fragrances, and gifts for the home. Barneys’ signature sense of wit and style is manifested in its creative advertising campaigns, original holiday themes, and celebrated window displays. Founded as a men’s retailer in 1923 in downtown Manhattan, it became an international arbiter of high style for both women and men in the 1970s, renowned for discovering and developing new and innovative design talent. Today, Barneys New York operates flagship stores in New York City, Beverly Hills, Chicago, Seattle, Boston, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Scottsdale along with a preeminent luxury online store, Barneys.com, as well as 18 other stores and outlets across the United States.
Barneys New CHILLIN’ OUT Holiday
The launch of Barneys 2015 holiday,CHILLIN’ OUT. Using its famed sense of wit and surprise to play up traditional winter motifs, the Barneys New York team worked with various collaborators to transform the Madison Avenue Flagship windows into a CHILLIN’ OUT visual narrative, complete with 35-foot fully functioning ice locker which serves as a live frozen workspace. The idea of winter is celebrated through unique and unprecedented displays, which are brought to life through partnerships with world-renowned artist Dale Chihuly, Utah-based Ice Castles, artist collective Okamoto Studio, and luxury automaker Lexus.
http://thewindow.barneys.com/barneys-holiday-windows-2015/
Through the CHILLIN’ OUT holiday partnerships, Barneys New York has pushed the limits of traditional holiday windows. The one-of-a-kind ice locker used for the Ice Castles and Ice Carvers windows was custom designed and built by the Barneys New York team to maintain the optimal condition for the integral component of these installations: ice. Updating the classic ‘Penguin Chase’ with accurately scaled Lexus model cars, as well as using 3D digital mapping to illuminate the “Winter Brilliance” sculpture adds another level of unprecedented technical feats to this season’s windows.
“The Ice Carvers”
A live ice carving performance in one of the Madison Avenue window displays integrates a surprising unique element to theCHILLIN’ OUT theme. Partnering with the ice carving collective OKAMOTO STUDIO, the Barneys New York team created a stylized satellite studio for the carvers to create winter themed sculptures as a part of daily live performances. Starting onWednesday, November 18, and running through Thursday, December 31, live carvers within the custom ice locker in the window will transform 20×30 inch blocks of ice into detailed holiday-themed sculptures. Barneys New York partnered with Moncler Gamme Bleu designed by Thom Browne to outfit the carvers in custom-designed metallic outerwear, which consist of a jumpsuit, vest, and blazer. Additional pieces from Moncler Gamme Bleu, including exclusive cashmere silver English rib gloves, beanies, neck warmers, and scarves, will also be available at Barneys New York.
Live Performance Schedule for “The Ice Carvers”:
Monday – Wednesday: Noon – 7:30PM
Thursday – Saturday: Noon – 8:30PM
Sunday: Noon – 6:00PM
“Ice Castles”
To play on the idea of CHILLIN’ OUT and traditional winter themes, Barneys New York has partnered with Ice Castles, a company known for creating large-scale ice formations typically set upon mountaintops, to build an installation within the confines of its Madison Avenue window. In order to properly execute the Ice Castles collaboration, Barneys New York designed an unprecedented fully operational ice locker within its display. The custom ice locker consistently maintains a temperature of 3 to 15 degrees Fahrenheit, and utilizes a custom misting system, which enables the creation and maintenance of the ice formations. Using a process known as “Icicle Farming,” Ice Castles makes its own icicles and fuses them together to create an ice scaffold that is sprayed with water to form uniquely intricate and organic ice formations. With an ongoing misting schedule, the ice becomes a naturally evolving glacial wonderland in constant evolution over the course of the window’s installation. The Ice Castle installation is further brought to life through the choreographed use of light, illuminating the ice in translucent shades of blue, green, red, and purple. Accompanied by a custom musical score by Hannis Brown evoking the icy sound and spirit of winter, the monochromatic structure transports the audience into the depths of a frozen empire.
“Arctic Chase”
Beginning with the idea of the penguin, the Barneys New York team partnered with Lexus to reimagine a traditional and playful winter racetrack adventure with the iconic arctic animal. Referencing ZSL London Zoo’s Lubetkin Penguin Pool and childhood games, the team commissioned renowned slot car designer Gary Gerding to build a racetrack – the first translucent slot car track Gerding has ever built out of polycarbonate. As three “Chilled-Out” crystal-covered penguins race around the track atop Lexus IS, GS F, and RC F model cars, which were 3D printed and also covered in crystals, an animated film narrative created by Invisible Light Network brings the full scene together. The stylized animation, “Stay Cool,” tells the story of a penguin hero racing against his opponents, set to an imaginary world of ice formations, city structures, and ski lodges. Invisible Light Network uniquely mixed traditional animation, CG, pixel, and glitch into one coherent story, which will be displayed on theatrical screens provided by Christies Digital, and is set to a custom score by composer Amnon Freidlin.
“Winter Brilliance by Dale Chihuly”
Barneys New York has collaborated with renowned sculptor and artist Dale Chihuly to design a site-specific installation for another CHILLIN’ OUT window. Entitled “Winter Brilliance,” the glass elements of the sculpture are representative of frigid winters, and appear as a grand crystalline explosion composed of individual hand-blown glass icicles. Several of the sculptural elements that comprise “Winter Brilliance” are suspended from the ceiling of the Madison Avenue window. The sculpture is set above a black pool of reflective water, giving the appearance it is frozen in midair. Barneys New York partnered with Christie THREE SIXTY to integrate the use of 3D digital mapping onto “Winter Brilliance.” One-of-a-kind choreographed lighting effects are projected onto the sculpture, creating the illusion of light on ice, snow, and moonlight, and adding a fluid and kinetic quality to it. The lighting cycle starts with pure white before moving into a sequence of snow flurries, ending in fiery display of red and yellow light projected onto the 700 hand-blown glass elements. The scene becomes an interpretation of fire and ice, accompanied by a modern adaptation of a score by Claude Debussy, one of Chihuly’s favorite composers.
To further celebrate CHILLIN’ OUT, Barneys New York will feature dedicated editorial content on its successful life and style editorial site, thewindow.barneys.com, including exclusive interviews and video content highlighting this holiday program.