Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf's

With the lead up to new year, meaning my exciting trip with my course to NYC (ahhhhh!!!!), I was very happy to hear that the film viewing this week was 'Scatter my ashes at Bergdorf's', all about one of the most iconic department stores in New York, Bergdorf Goodmans.

Featuring numerous interviews with designers and celebrities, the documentary was very informative, showcasing the store assets and history. However, this information was hard to digest, as the facts outweighed the visuals in some areas, making the documentary, at points, very hard to keep focused on. This was quite disappointing as it had real potential to really sell the store as a modern and desirable facility for people today, but instead actually made me quite nervous to approach the doors due to their pre-judgements of people as they walk through the store, their expensive price tags, and the idea of half a dozen members of staff hassling you as you enter (in order to make their ideal £450,000 yearly salary off commission!). 

However, the documentary showed amazing insight into their 2011 Christmas preparations for the store, particularly focusing on their magical window displays. With months of planning, the festive windows are a huge focal point of the year, with the Berdorf team wanting to cause a buzz and magical story which consumers can continue to return to and spend hours discovering. This year, the store decided that the title 'Carnival of the Animals' was perfect for the holidays, using their five main windows to create unique animal kingdoms, all of which used different materials to achieve this (brass, mosaic, paper, wood and the North Pole garden party). Watching the team select and create ornaments for the windows allowed us to imagine the inspiration and story behind the displays, really making them more magical and special to see piece together. The beautiful craftsmanship was admirable, and the detailing really created a breathtaking final piece.

 

 

 Overall, I thought the documentary could have been condensed in order to maintain audience attention span, however, thought the window displays really lightened up the mood and made the film exciting, as you wanted to continue to watch to see the final product of all the team's hard work. Watching this has really given me the inspiration to go out and pay more attention to stores window displays here in the UK. Although they may not be as extravagant and over the top as the festive displays in NYC, they all tell a story, and this is something I would love to discover more about.
#fcpreflection