TIFFANY AND RALPH

With s few more department stores shuttering this year, the tour of them is getting shorter, as Barney's now makes it's exit from the retail world. But leave it to some fine specialty stores to do some wonderful feeling windows.  I can't imagine New York at Christmas without these creative windows. Another stop for me every year is Tiffany's & Co.

Tiffany's always manages to create a damn creative window and no easy feat creating them in such a small space, as these jewelry windows are not that big,  They always tell a compelling story.The Tiffany-blue display will certainly dazzle any passerby on Fifth Avenue. The brand's display tells a story about the main protagonist ,Tiffany's, of course, mouse, in a delightful and charming way.  I also enjoyed the advent calendar.

Meanwhile over at Ralph Lauren, the place always reeks of style and luxury, but the windows broke from the normal there....much more fun and whimsy...with a floral theme to them. Loving ranunculus flowers you know I loved these. The inside doesn't disappoint either. And they managed to milk me for another cashmere sweater.

Plus they make a mean cup of coffee!

EPITOME OF CHIC

While continuing our window tour, we visited another new location since two of our usual spots were closing. I suggested going to Ralph Lauren , because it would be a treat just to see the mansion itself.

 I figured we might as well see some beautiful bygone architecture. The Ralph Lauren mansion also had some pretty chic holiday windows and décor.  So chic in fact that they make me want to crawl into them and start living that life. I especially love the windows because of the bears!.  What will they think of next?! 

If you ever make it to New York, but not necessarily a Lauren shopper, stop in anyhow. The mansion itself should be seen. And I could have went nuts in their cashmere men's shop. I love me some cashmere. Costly yes...but oh so warm.

The Gertrude Rhinelander Waldo House is a French Renaissance revival mansion located at 867 Madison Avenue on the corner of East 72nd Street in the Lenox Hill neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. Completed in 1898, it was modeled after a châteaux of the Loire Valley in France. The plan was for this home to outshine the Vanderbilt limestone palace. Gertrude Rhinelander Waldo, the eccentric New York heiress who commissioned the mansion.Gertrude never actually moved in, never opened those crates. Widowed after two short years of marriage, she opted to live across the street in a town home with her unmarried sister, Laura V. Rhinelander.  She was unable to maintain the building and it went into foreclosure in 1909. The crates of valuable furnishings, never opened, were the cause of multiple lootings of the property in 1909. She died in debt in 1914. The building remained vacant until 1921.

Ralph Lauren obtained the lease in 1983 and started a massive overhaul of the building to create his first New York Ralph Lauren flagship store. Published figures put the cost around $14-15 million. And the best part was we got to visit the newly opened Ralph's Coffee Shop, with prices at the same or lower than Starbucks, and I have to say was downright damn good coffee, so much so I came home with a pound of it.

And fear not. If your not at the mansion, he also has several vintage coffee trucks out and about town, with one it seems always in the Rockefeller Center radius. How cute is that truck?

If Bergdorf Goodman won't let me move in, maybe Ralph Lauren will?