In New York City, creative competitiveness manifests itself most visibly in the window displays of the city’s premiere luxe retail stores, which become more innovative and over-the-top with every passing season. While the windows at Saks Fifth Avenue, Barneys, Henri Bendel’s and others are exceptional, the Bergdorf Goodman windows are the ne plus ultra of window design. Now arguably at the pinnacle of their game, legendary visual display artists Linda Fargo and David Hoey at Bergdorf’s (as it is popularly known) keep upping the ante with their innovative and constantly changing installations. A far cry from window dressers—an appellation they view with distaste— Fargo and Hoey mastermind the art direction of the windows, often employing a small army of specialists to carry out their creative visions.

“No two projects are ever the same,” says window director Hoey. “We need people with many different types of skills: costume designers, carpenters, beaders, specialists in trompe l’oeil, propping experts. Many come from the arts: Once we needed someone who had the patience to make a dress out of birdseed. Sometimes we have two or three people, sometimes scores, especially at Christmastime.”

Summer 2006. These were two of five windows promoting the Dada show at New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

Linda Fargo came to Bergdorf’s in 1995 and immediately made headlines with her extravagant Christmas windows (her signature “dreams through the glass” installations have even influenced costume shows at New York City’s august Metropolitan Museum). Shortly thereafter Hoey joined her, and it has been a magical partnership ever since. Though Fargo was recently promoted (her current title is senior VP, Store Presentation and Women’s Fashion director), the two still work closely and collaborate freely. Indeed, during our interview they often spoke with one voice, finishing one another’s sentences. “We have many similarities,” says Fargo, “but we each have our signature look. I tend to be more baroque.”

Regarding their mission, Fargo says, “Bergdorf’s is our client; what we create sets the tone, creates a level of expectation and propels the brand. We are artists who work under the umbrella of a commercial enterprise. We are trusted to ferret out the essence of the brand, to divine the spirit of the brand and move it forward. We reflect the ego and the id.” Hoey continues, “We like to shock tastefully, to get attention, but in a certain way.”

“We have a lot of personalities to our client,” Fargo explains. “We run the gamut from big traditional established designers like Oscar de la Renta and Valentino to Libertine and Derek Lam, and very young emerging designers like Doori. We believe in expressing beauty, elegance and humor. We never want to be perceived as staid.”

That is hardly likely, given the propensity for Bergdorf’s windows to astound with an eye-popping level of detail and a theatricality rivaling the most lavish Broadway productions. Considering that all this must happen within a fixed and limited space, Fargo and Hoey’s accomplishments represent a triumph over the physically constrained nature of the medium.

Hoey says, “We have the tallest windows of anybody, so you can really exaggerate proportions. I wish we had another couple feet of depth, but we compensate with the height.” Fargo adds, “In a way, the limitations of the space are liberating; it is what it is and everything else is open … but you have to like it. If we had our druthers, we wish there were bigger openings to bring objects in.”

Holiday 2005. This Venetian fantasy was suggested by the 1940s theatrical murals used as a backdrop.

The windows change as often as every two weeks, and with over 35 windows (Bergdorf Men’s is on the other side of Fifth Avenue), the work is very labor intensive. “And very thought intensive,” says Fargo. “It’s not enough to be a designer; you must be production oriented and mobilize people. We don’t have the weight of consensus like an architect; though we have to be specific with the clothes, this company does not try to stifle us. We get to use all of our creative facilities, and 98 percent of the year we manage to satisfy everyone.”

Hoey says, “We get to work with every material: poetry using smoke, mosaics made out of toast, broken umbrellas. We do high culture to pop culture, sometimes a deliberate mess, sometimes organized chaos, back and forth between overstuffed to minimalist, moving between lush and dense to clean and crisp.” Fargo adds, “Our inspiration comes from unlikely sources and is not necessarily conscious; we have a few obsessions. One of mine is organic things like birds, branches, shells.”

“We don’t like to repeat ourselves,” says Hoey, “but we love to bring back a favorite prop like a big animal and use it again. Underneath it all, we love concept, double and triple meanings.”

Left: A cotton candy window, with customized standard poodle, was one of a “carnival confections” series. Center: Holiday 2005. In a “delft mad tea party,” authentic antique delft murals mixed with madcap activities, including fake tea spills. Right: Holiday 2005. Practically everything in this “gilded cage” window was hand gold-leafed.

What kind of person is drawn to this specialized design niche? Hoey’s degree is in music. “I used to compose music; rhythm is the secret to all design. I experience music in a psychedelic way, like hearing colors.” He studied art for a few years as well and started doing window design at Neiman Marcus in Dallas. Fargo has an art degree: “I was an artist since I was very young; I was a collagist, a multimedia person. I always had an interest in fantasy and costume but I did everything—sculpture, ceramics, drawing, painting. I came to New York hoping to work in graphic design; my first entry-level job was at Macy’s, where I became window director. At Bergdorf’s we are only one store, so it’s easy to be holistic here. Last year we opened BG [a restaurant], and I did the logo, the salt and pepper shakers, the china pattern. I always dipped my toe into every aspect of things.”

Witty, elegant and artful, the windows of Bergdorf’s are a constant creative challenge, but Fargo and Hoey seldom disappoint. “If you have an idea, do it and don’t wait,” says Fargo. “That used to be my biggest fear, that I would run out of ideas, but it hasn’t happened. And you have to get an idea out of your system.”

Top: Holiday 2005. This window, evoking a baroque music room with period instruments, was one of Bergdorf’s rare “straightforward” windows.