Linda Fargo is an American fashion business executive. Since 2006, she has served as the senior vice president of the fashion office and as the director of women's fashion and store presentation for the Bergdorf Goodman department store in New York City.[1]

Early life and education edit

Born in 1957, Fargo grew up in the suburbs of Milwaukee and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.[2] After her move to New York, she started as a window dresser at Macy’s, eventually becoming the visual director.[3]

Career edit

Fargo joined Berdorf Goodman as the display director in June 1996.[4][5] Fargo was one of eighteen Manhattan window-display designers that collaborated on the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum's The Window Show in May 1999.[6][7] That year she was both vice president for visual presentations and director of visual merchandising.[8][9] She and Robert Burke designed the 2001 Whitney Museum of American Art's annual gala called Nightclub as Monument, inspired on New York café society and the museum's retrospective of Edward Steichen's photographic works from the 1920s and 1930s.[10]

After the September 11 attacks, Fargo and her team "completely readjusted" their display plans, which were originally going to be "an homage to the arts," instead focusing on having each window facing Fifth Avenue decorated in a separate value or virtue,[11] while the 57th Street windows were a black-and-white collage of New York landmarks, and the 58th Street windows centered around children.[12] One of the Fifth Avenue windows that year was highlighted by The New York Times as capturing the transition between "traditional sparkles and reds to a quieter, neutral wheat and organic palette" in holiday tastes.[13] Assouline published Dreams Through the Glass: Windows from Bergdorf Goodman, written by Fargo herself, the $50 book was a retrospective of her displays, which Harper's Bazaar called "designs [which] prove that at its most sublime, window dressing is an art form."[14][15][16]

At Bergdorf, she works with David Hoey, the present window dresser and senior director for visual presentation, with whom she creates "about 450 windows a year."[17]

In the Media edit

At a Cystic Fibrosis Foundation fundraiser held at Macy's in 1985, Fargo wore "lace gloves and a black dress borrowed from Kim Stoddard," which The New York Times described as "very new wave."[18]

In 2013 she was featured in the documentary Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf's (the title lifted from the caption of a 1990 Victoria Roberts cartoon that appeared in pages of The New Yorker).[19] Variety said of Fargo in its review of the film, "Bergdorf's fashion director, Linda Fargo, effortlessly commands centerstage for long stretches as she vets new designers' collections for kindly 'maybe later' rejection or 'welcome to the family' acceptance."[20]

Bibliography edit

  • Hoey, David; Linda, Fargo (2010). Windows at Bergdorf Goodman. Assouline. ISBN 978-1614280828.

References edit

  1. ^ "Linda Fargo - Women in Luxury - TIME". content.time.com. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
  2. ^ "Linda Fargo | BoF 500 | The People Shaping the Global Fashion Industry". businessoffashion.com. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
  3. ^ "Linda Fargo is part of the BoF 500". The Business of Fashion. Retrieved 20 April 2020.
  4. ^ Colman, David (1 December 1996). "Holiday Windows for the Id in All of Us". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2 December 2015. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
  5. ^ Schiro, Anne-Marie (10 February 1998). "Patterns". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 27 May 2015. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
  6. ^ Tiefert, Rita (September–October 1999). "Yes, they do windows". How. Vol. 14, no. 5. F+W. Retrieved 27 September 2021 – via ProQuest.
  7. ^ Budick, Ariella (19 May 1999). "The Art Is the View / Cooper-Hewitt frames a show around window shopping". Newsday. ISSN 0278-5587. Retrieved 27 September 2021 – via ProQuest.
  8. ^ Kaplan, Fred (7 December 2000). "It's Window Time in Manhattan 'Happy Collision' of Theater and Art and Advertising". The Boston Globe. ISSN 0743-1791. Retrieved 27 September 2021 – via ProQuest.
  9. ^ Norwich, William (31 December 2000). "Style & Entertaining; Slush Fun". The New York Times. p. 48. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 27 May 2015. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
  10. ^ Columbia, David Patrick (January 2001). "David Patrick Columbia's New York social diary". Quest. Vol. 15, no. 1. Quest Media. Retrieved 27 September 2021 – via ProQuest.
  11. ^ Kaufman, Leslie (15 November 2001). "Windows as Mirrors of a City's Mood; After Sept. 11, Department Stores Rethink Holiday Displays". The New York Times. p. 1. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 27 May 2015. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
  12. ^ Wilson, Anamaria (20 November 2001). "Window Shopping". Women's Wear Daily. ISSN 0043-7581. Retrieved 27 September 2021 – via ProQuest.
  13. ^ Cunningham, Bill (16 December 2001). "ON THE STREET; A Smooth Shift Into Neutral". The New York Times. p. 4. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 27 May 2015. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
  14. ^ "News you can use". Harper's Bazaar. No. 3504. November 2003. ISSN 0017-7873. Retrieved 28 September 2021 – via ProQuest.
  15. ^ Treffinger, Stephen (20 November 2003). "Glamour in the Windows and on the Ceilings at Bergdorf". The New York Times. ISSN 1553-8095. Archived from the original on 26 December 2017. Retrieved 28 September 2021.
  16. ^ Maslin, Janet Maslin (21 November 2003). "The Book Tide Is Running, For Readers And Browsers". The New York Times. ISSN 1553-8095. Archived from the original on 29 December 2017. Retrieved 28 September 2021.
  17. ^ La Ferla, Ruth (13 May 2003). "Front Row". The New York Times. ISSN 1553-8095. Archived from the original on 27 December 2017. Retrieved 28 September 2021.
  18. ^ Dullea, Georgia (2 April 1985). "Macy's: Flowering of a Party". The New York Times. p. 8. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 28 November 2017. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
  19. ^ "The New York Times". nytimes.com. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
  20. ^ Ronnie Scheib. "Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf's: Review | Variety". variety.com. Retrieved 20 September 2015.