in design i often struggle with the nostalgia of the past and the excitement of the new. so when one of my longstanding design icons teamed up with none other than new york’s premier fashion institution, bergdorf goodman, thrill replaced trepidation. traditionally perceived as a bit of a girls club, bergdorf is cleverly stepping up the retail male fix by launching goodman’s in bar the men’s department.
designers david collins studio have become synonymous with star-bar-dom; from re-inventing the berkley to the connaught and claridges they excel at creating a destination within a destination.
everyone has probably already seen ‘scatter my ashes at bergdorf’s’; the store needs as little introduction as jackie kennedy, and the reality is that too much of a good thing only gets better.
the romanticism of bergdorf’s might have you yearning for an age long gone, but since that’s all backstage now, there’s a new super sensation that has to take it’s place. the goodman’s bar aims at resurrecting a dream and introducing the ritual of old-school department store dedication. i believe if you shop here, you seriously have to have a bloody good reason to look shit.
that’s why i just love department stores, that most ingenious invention of aspirations, concentrated glamour and escapism where you step off the sidewalk and instantly go cleopatra; with the manicured air that surrounds every display and sales point, the history and the feeling of partaking in something beyond reality. for $6000 you can walk out with a new pair of alaïa heels and for $16 taltarni brut rosé you might walk out with a new husband, as robert verdi said: shopping at bergdorf’s is an aphrodisiac, it’s all about getting laid… that’s the beauty of hanging out at swanky sets. seriously, sampling the atmosphere is part of the greater bergdorf goodman experience and i have no doubt that the new goodman’s bar will become exactly that…