Stuff to Buy...

The window displays in NYC are, like those in Paris, enticing and artsy.  For the first time ever, all of Macy's store windows at their flagship NYC store were devoted to one designer -- all for  Martha Stewart's new collection (some 2,000 things) exclusively sold through the Macy's stores. It is the single biggest private label launch in Macy's history, according to the Washington Post.  Macy's is the largest department store in the world.

There has been a flattening of the markets so that designer goods are no longer commanding the cachet.  People can go buy more inexpensive replicas of fashion items because today's fashion can be duplicated instantaneously.   

It was interesting to read my reader's comments on the article about the 100th anniversary of Neiman's...  Bellaza commented about the Neiman's anniversary catalogue, "they seem nothing more than an icon to superficiality and materialism. From one who loves beautiful things, I was truly annoyed at the lack of meaning I found in anything within its pages. I guess the beautiful things I love are more in the world, or at least down to earth."

I think Bellaza's thoughts are typical of many who are not blinded by commercialism. 

New York shopping holds a certain appeal for a population that lives on the streets and the commercial world is so ever-present, and for visitors, too.  Somehow products that "lift-off" there impact the marketing of the products elsewhere.  The marriage of Martha and Macy's is culturally interesting.  It comes well after the strategic example set by Target, with its design partners including architect Michael Graves and New York fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi.  I never saw a Target when I lived in Manhattan.

photo: Washington Post by Helayne Seidman

Comments

[tut-tut]

Do you think the unique, the handmade will make a slow but significant rise in sales, against the "designer," especially with the backlash against goods made in China? What about the "sustainable goods" movement?
I've recently opened a small shop with 8 other women that sells yarn and handwoven and -knitted garments, as well as jewelry, and the garments are the biggest sellers so far. People love them.

[MotherPie]

I think so. I'm now in New Mexico where fashion isn't a big deal AT ALL - a big change from living in major metro areas.

[Rhonda]

I like to go window shopping just for the eye candy quality, "enticing and artsy"
but not really set foot in the stores.

[Bellezza]

I find it particularly ironic that K-Mart was the previous sole purveyor of Martha Stewart. What does Macy's have to say about that, I wonder. It's not such a glamorous comparison in my mind.

[Antique Mommy]

Frankly I don't like Target as much as I used to now that they are all slick and designer-y. I liked them better when they were a step above K-Mart.

The same with Pier 1. I liked them better when they were cheap/import/eclectic. Apparently I'm not the only one -- their sales are way down.

[anthony]

NYC windows are not about consumerism.In Fact, when living there you often are told by friends that they came in to NYC to "shop" in places you had never been to. If you move to NYC, you don't take a car, it cost as much as a mortgage to park it. Unless, its raining, you walk. As you walk on concrete streets, your only views are the windows. Those highly stylized, story telling windows. Most people in most towns step out their door into their cars and notice nothing as they drive by. A few people walk and see bushes, trees, flowers. In NYC, its windows. They change like the seasons and make those 20 block walks much more fun. They just changed for Fall. In another 10 weeks the ultimate- the holiday windows!