Window Dressing Has Taken on a Whole New Meaning on Fifth Avenue

So we’ve previously filled you in on the more traditional holiday department-store windows in New York...and now for something completely different. As you stroll along Fifth Avenue, admiring the various dancing snowflakes and singing candy canes, you may be brought up short by a display in a window on 38th and Fifth. Yes, those mannequins are live, for starters. And yes, depending on the time of day, they are indeed getting dressed.
The live display features two young women hanging out in what is supposed to be a trendy girl’s apartment. (Clearly these young women don’t have jobs, or responsibilities. or a kitchen.) They are seen mostly hanging out, doing their nails, reading magazines, and generally lounging around. At a certain point, however, they decide it’s time to get primping, and they strip down to their underwear and start getting ready for the evening ahead. Much of the display is taken up with their dressing, accessorizing, and changing into evening clothes.
The whole set-up, which is there until December 6, is an attention-getting ad for xoxo clothing, a line of trendy clothes aimed at young women (and seen on celebs like Jessica Alba.)
Not surprisingly, the windows are aimed at gift-buying boyfriends, and not surprisingly, men make up the lion’s share of the gawkers, especially at getting-dressed time.
One irate female pedestrian called the police last week--but word has it that the men in blue merely looked, smiled, and moved on.

The Man Who Would Be Fashion: Richard Avedon at ICP

If you’ve ever flipped through an issue of Harper’s Bazaar from the ‘40 or ‘50s, you’ve most likely seen the work of seminal fashion photographer Richard Avedon, whose photographs are now on view at New York’s International Center of Photography (ICP) in “Avedon Fashion 1944-2000,” part of the museum’s “Year of Fashion” event. (To file under “Did you Know”: The fashion photographer played by Fred Astaire in the movie “Funny Face,” with Audrey Hepburn, was loosely based on Avedon.) Throughout his nearly seven-decade career, Avedon completely changed the role of the fashion photographer by veering away from the static look of most fashion photographs and creating a new brand of lively, dynamic images: he took models out of the studio and into the air, showing them in motion. Formerly thought of as a predominantly European business, Avedon helped influence fashion photography in a way that continues to impact photographers today
ICP now offers the most comprehensive look at his fashion photography to date, including his work from Bazaar, Vogue and The New Yorker. More than 200 works are on view through September 20, including vintage prints, archival materials and contact sheets.
ICP is located at 1133 Avenue of the Americas at 43rd Street. Call (212) 857-0000 for more information.