Lots of Bleecker Street's stores make an extra effort for Halloween windows, but it basically comes down to a battle between Ralph Lauren and Marc Jacobs to see who can concoct the spookiest display.
Ralph has the edge, of course, with four separate shops on the street to Marc's three (for now), but his sensibility leans more toward the genteel, with a Miss Havisham look in his women's store, and a more conceptual mannequin factory for the men. The obvious comparison would be the dueling side-by-side Great Pumpkin displays in both designers' children's stores. We'll call that one a draw.
We were a bit more repulsed by the pair of explorers in Ralph's RRL shop (below) who appear to have sat down one day a century ago and never gotten up, but they still had that pristine hyperstyled Polo Shop look despite their lack of flesh.
In contrast, Marc has mostly eschewed the idea of showing merchandise in his windows, turning his women's Marc by Marc windows into a dark, grisly swamp complete with animated ghouls emerging from the sludge —too dark, unfortunately for us to successfully photograph. It was, however, the Marc by Marc Accessories shop (pictured above) that impressed us the most with a simple concept executed perfectly: Heaps of skulls and bones neatly arranged as a macabre wall covering with a warning clearly posted at eye level. "Stop. You are entering the valley of the shadow of death..." Simple, to the point and yet really, really gross.
Match goes to Jacobs.
Love the Marc By Marc window
Posted by: Wigertstil | November 01, 2009 at 03:38 PM