Barneys New York Unveils BazDazzled Holiday Windows
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Baz Luhrmann was worried on Thursday evening, just as the splashy holiday windows he and his wife, Catherine Martin, had devised for Barneys, were about to go live.
A huge crowd had gathered on Madison Avenue to watch, things got off to a late start, and there was a heavy rain. “I was terrified,” the director told Yahoo Style later in the evening. “If the weather was perfect, then I’d still worry a bit, but not a lot.” The presentation involved more than just window décor; there were dancers, ice skaters, acrobats, a drumming band, and a performance by the a cappella group Pentatonix.
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“I was worried quite a bit, given that Pentatonix had just come from Berlin,” Luhrmann said. “They do all their vocal only with their voices, and when those kids came out there, my heart went out to them. And to be on Madison Avenue, with all that noise, and all that weather, and still be on cue and hit all the marks, I was very proud of them.”
“We were rehearsing last night, we rehearsed in the studio as well,” Martin added. “But you’re incredibly nervous, because it’s raining.”
But the Hollywood (by way of Australia) power couple enjoyed all the hoopla anyway, and when we spoke with them, they were finally able to relax at a celebratory dinner in the Central Park Zoo—in a warm, dry, tent, decorated as a winter wonderland, with trees in fall colors, cotton-like snow on the floors, snowflakes drifting from the ceiling, and stilt walkers dressed as woodland creatures.
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Dakota Fanning, a guest at the dinner, was envious of what she’d seen in the Barneys windows. “I’ve always dreamed of being an ice-skater,” the actress told Yahoo Style. She says she can’t skate at all. “I’m the girl, like, they give you a chair to go around the rink,” she laughed. “That’s me.”
The unveiling of the seasonal window décor had partygoers talking holiday traditions. “Our biggest ritual doesn’t involve any travel,” Fanning said. “My sister gives us a different Christmas ornament every year. So on Christmas Eve, she gives us [all] a new ornament, to my Dad, my Mom, me, my Grandmother. And we have a separate tree that’s just the ornaments that she’s given us,” the Twilight star explained. “And she tries to make it something that relates to something you’ve done that year. So that’s a special thing.”
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Nickelodeon star Victoria Justice’s family also keeps it simple for the holidays, having her grandmother over for dinner. “She just turned 94, and she’s Puerto Rican, so we have rice and beans and chicken every Friday,” Justice said, adding that that’ll be a part of their Christmas dinner as well. “And just watching lots of movies together, lots of Christmas movies.”
For British R&B singer Estelle, Christmas day starts really, really early. “My mom always starts cooking around two in the morning,” she said. “So it’s weird. Christmas Eve, two in the morning, my mom starts cooking – Christmas day. And I’m in charge of vegetables, and that’s my deal, every year,” she said with a shrug. “She doesn’t think I can cook,” she added, laughing.
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