Sight(s)

BEST WINDOW DISPLAY Barneys

Photograph: Ben Goldstein

Windows

Barneys (660 Madison Ave at 61st St, 212-826-8900) With compositionally astute windows, Barneys tells us to “Have a Green Holiday,” but the subtext is red alert. Collectivized elves post notices that santa’s sweatshop is now fair-trade, and the 12 days of Christmas now include 12 tons of tofu and six compost toilets. A magic tree sprouts eco-celebrity fruit (one wonders if Daryl Hannah ripens before Prince Charles), and elves in MetroCard bodysuits team up to support a globe of old bottles, showing up Atlas a few blocks away.

Bergdorf Goodman (754 Fifth Ave at 58th St, 212-753-7300) The elemental theme of Bergdorf’s curiosity cabinets is taken to extremes in this tribute to designer Tony Duquette. The displays feature motifs like praying mantises (as andirons in the “fire” window) and pagodas (some look like they could be on loan from Do-Ho Suh’s personal collection). The Earth display is most successful colorwise, though the overall effect is Boschian in its horror vacui and difficult to grasp without backing up almost to the street.

Lord & Taylor (424 Fifth Ave at 39th St, 212-391-3344) It’s not a small world, but rather a small Continental Europe (plus New York) at Lord & Taylor’s Five Senses of Christmas, which features five classic scenes spanning as many Western cities. The sixth window is a peaceable multiethnic kingdom, with a kente-clad youth on a tree swing and Andean girls petting a donkey.There’s none of Barneys’ political doomsday in these displays, which are the most accessible and the most traditional of the three.

The WINNER
Go green! The sincerity of Barney’s eco-message may be questionable, but the display engages the viewer instead of simply providing an overload of glitz.

Critiqued by artist and TONY art critic T.J. Carlin (wooloo.org/tovacarlin) and artist Chris Ulivo (inglettgallery.com)

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