6 WWD MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2014 WWD.COM

but also to be able to explore the practicalities and the actualities Barneys’ Holiday Production of the windows and the interaction they will have with the audience.” are bejeweled with diamonds, alive. We’re working on extraor- “Barneys New York has a long By SHARON EDELSON elves carry boom boxes and dinary live performances in our history of unexpected and imagi- squirrels use gold spray paint to windows. Because Catherine is native holiday programs, and BARNEYS NEW YORK will be “tag” the scene. a great costume and set designer, working with Baz and Catherine Baz Dazzled for Christmas. And that’s just the crest we’re creating unique costumes continues this tradition,” said That’s Baz as in Baz Luhrmann and Martin created. for some of the performances. Mark Lee, Barneys New York Luhrmann, the director of such It carries the motto, “A Life Lived You’re going to enter the world of chief executive officer. visually lush films as “Moulin in Fear Is a Life Half Lived” and theater and film through the eyes “We’re always trying to think of how windows can move for- Rouge,” “Romeo + Juliet” and will appear on shopping bags, gift of Barneys.” The windows will A limited-edition ward and be something other “The Great Gatsby.” Luhrmann cards and displays. The crest is have a six-week run. handcrafted Champagne than a set piece,” said Freedman. and his wife, Academy Award- the starting point for everything; “The idea was to take tradi- sabre engraved with the “They’re a way of defining who winning costume and set de- its artwork will be brought to life tional holiday iconography and words, “Truth. Beauty. we are. When we work with Baz signer Catherine Martin, are in the windows. ironically turn it on its head, to Freedom. Love.” collaborating with the retailer “We’re entering a whole dif- embrace the joy of the holiday and Martin, we start to get into to create singular experiences ferent world of theater film, cos- season, the comfort and familiar- their way of thinking and they using their unique visual lan- tume design and performance,” ity we find with these well-worn and Martin’s company, is the gen- start to get into ours.” guage. The Baz Dazzled holi- said Dennis Freedman, Barneys’ images, but nevertheless inject eral theme of the windows, but The theme will take over the day program is a multiplatform creative director. “I hope people them with an inclusive, irrever- Freedman said it shouldn’t be Barneys’ Madison Avenue exte- initiative that will include the are going to be thrilled to see ent perspective that allows the taken too literally. “All of those rior. “We’re attempting the most Madison Avenue flagship’s win- these woodland creatures come audience to enter into this holi- themes are filtered through ambitious facade we’ve ever dows, facade, in-store displays, the eye and DNA of done,” he said. “This is going products, gift cards and print Barneys,” he said, refer- farther than anything.” and digital advertising. ring to the retailer’s wit Barneys in 2011 transformed The Luhrmann and Martin col- and subversive humor. its two-story facade into a portal laboration is the latest in a series Technology was inte- for Gaga’s Workshop, covering of annual Barneys’ holiday extrav- grated into the windows, the main entrance with a larger- aganzas that have included part- so there will be action than-life abstract image of Lady nerships with Jay Z, Lady Gaga around the clock, includ- Gaga with the entry to the main and Disney. ing during periods when door through her mouth. When Barneys, Luhrmann there aren’t live perfor- Barneys teamed with Disney and Martin conceived of a mances. “With the idea in 2012, an animated short holiday world filled with of the windows coming “Electric Holiday” was looped fantastical characters, to life, we’ll have kinetic on LED tiles on the facade. woodland creatures, movement and change,” Holiday products developed for snow owls and candy said Freedman. “We’re Chelsea Passage include tabletop canes. Birds sport trying to do something decor, ornaments, stockings and antlers and back- we’ve never attempted be- toys. There’s also a limited-edition ward baseball fore on this scale.” handcrafted Champagne sabre en- caps, snowflakes Freedman recalled graved with the credo; a backgam- and mushrooms The Baz Dazzled crest will appear on past live performances in mon set; children’s fairy princess shopping bags, gift cards and store displays. Barneys’ windows, such and owl costumes, and a hand- as Daphne Guinness get- painted tent. “They are products day spirit with good humor,” said ting dressed for the Metropolitan we are very proud of,” Freedman Luhrmann. “The Barneys’ holi- Museum of Art’s Costume Institute said. “We worked with the best day campaign is by its nature a gala in 2011, saying it was “a very vendors. The products that have piece of live theater, and so for us rudimentary beginning. We’ve the humor and playfulness, but the challenge and adventure is to been able to develop that idea in they’re beautifully executed”. create theater in a retail environ- new and different ways.” Barneys will donate 25 ment. A lot of the technique and To create the windows, percent of sales from all Baz processes are identical [to mak- Luhrmann said he and his wife are Dazzled holiday products to ing a film] and, of course, Barneys using “storytelling, written nar- Room to Read, a global organi- has a very distinguished and edgy rative, drawings, historical refer- zation that seeks to transform history of window display and we ences, discussion, music, site visits, the lives of millions of children A hand-painted tent and fairy want to embrace that.” computer renderings and visual- in developing countries by fo- princess and owl costumes “Truth. Beauty. Freedom. izations. These are all things that cusing on literacy and gender from the holiday collection. Love,” the credo of Luhrmann we do in order to find inspiration, equality in education.

teamed with designer Vivienne Lululemon Athletica’s Tam to create a one-off spring bra, shorts and hot 2012 yoga collection. Pure, one towel mat and Lululemon Starts Asian Push of Hong Kong’s largest and old- foam block. reinventing ourselves to be a truly We want to make sure that we do est yoga studios, opened a branch By WWD STAFF global company,” Lee said of the something right, do something in Shanghai in October, bringing Canadian company’s four-year right for the community.” its recently launched yoga line BEIJING — Lululemon Athletica international strategy. “We [have] Lee said Asian customers are to Mainland China. Meanwhile, Inc.’s new general manager for 300 stores in North America and responding to the showrooms Taiwanese brand Easyoga moved Asia said this year and next will [the] only store we have outside and their staff. The company in- into the Mainland Chinese mar- lay the groundwork for the yo- North America is London.” vited 100 people to an event ear- ket in 2008. gawear company’s global expan- Lee said there are feasibility lier this year at the ION Orchard But Lee said he believes the sion plans as the brand tries to studies under way for Japan and Road mall in Singapore and 1,000 Lululemon product, which mixes tap into China’s growing interest South Korea but the company’s people showed up, he recalled. premium fabrics, beautiful de- in the sector. focus is setting up shop in China. The showrooms offer a lim- signs and function, will stand out Hong Kong-based Ken Lee, He declined to give sales fig- ited selection of items including among the giants. He said the taking on a brand-new role at ures, but said that Lululemon’s T-shirts, tank tops, shorts and yoga company is considering tailoring the company, will spearhead China sales have the potential pants, and the lack of a full as- products to Asian tastes in terms Lululemon’s Asian expansion to double those of the brand in sortment has caused some disap- of colorful fabrics and fashion- push. The brand already has America, adding that the profile pointment to customers who visit they’ve gotten really beautiful,” forward designs. He added that seven “showrooms” in Asia of the company’s typical cus- the showrooms, Lee admitted. Yan said, explaining when she the company has ramped up — four in Hong Kong, two in tomer in China is a professional However, customers can order first started her studio a decade quality-control inspections and Singapore and one in Shanghai woman aged 25 to 40. the full collection online from ago, practitioners would often measures to cater to particularly — where staff interact with cus- Lee, who joined Lululemon the brand’s U.S. or Hong Kong wear gym clothes or traditional discriminating Asian consumers. tomers, stage events and sell in February after past stints at Web sites. Chinese garments for Tai Chi. On the quality note, Lululemon a limited range of the brand’s Fossil, Coach and Adidas, said Unofficial estimates suggest “Members who are 40 years has faced a tumultuous time, most merchandise, including apparel the yogawear brand will open a 10 million people are practic- old, they don’t care about [fashion], notably with the recall of a range and mats. Lee said the response second showroom in Shanghai ing yoga in China, according they just want to be comfortable, of see-through yoga pants that has been so strong that the inside the Shanghai Centre on to Matthew Crabbe of Mintel but those who are 26 to 35, they’re caused its stock price to plum- brand is looking to open its first West Nanjing Road this month. Group Ltd., a global market re- very fashionable,” said Yan. met, a switch in its top executives full-fledged store in Asia, either The company is preparing to search company. Lululemon faces plenty of and damaged the reputation of its in Hong Kong or Singapore, pos- launch a showroom in Beijing Yan said China’s yoga indus- competition in China from both founder, Chip Wilson. sibly as soon as the end of this sometime next year as well. try is growing three times faster international giants like Nike and Lee said the company is deal- year. The company is also work- “Sales are not the main goal than the U.S. and she is optimis- Adidas and local Chinese sports ing with its past mistakes but ing on rolling out a Chinese- [of the showroom], it’s just to tic that foreign labels such as brands. Chinese athletic brand is hopeful that the new team, language Web site by mid-2015. test the waters for our product, Lululemon will do well if their Hosa considers itself one of the installed in November, which After the Chinese site’s launch, our culture,” said the executive, marketing is done right. leading yogawear players in includes chief executive officer Lee hopes to set up a shop in a triathlete himself. “Before, I feel the yoga clothes China. Chinese sportswear giant Laurent Potdevin, chief product Alibaba’s Tmall. “This company is not a super- [offered in China] were too much Li Ning, named after its found- officer Tara Poseley and him- “International expansion is rel- aggressive company, trying to like fitness club, there was no dif- er, a former Olympic gymnast, self, will be able to steer the atively new to our company. We’re open 2,000 stores in two years. ference. But now, since two years, launched a yoga line in 2009 and ship forward.