Bergdorf Goodman turned its Fifth Avenue flagship into the setting for its own party on September 9, marking 125 years in business with an evening staged across the store’s main floor. Rather than move the celebration to an outside venue, the retailer kept guests inside the building at 754 Fifth Avenue, filling the selling floor with installations, curated displays and a live performance.
Singer-songwriter Ravyn Lenae anchored the night with a live set that drew the crowd onto the shopping floor. Guests signed an Assouline guest book, moved through interactive installations and gathered around a surprise birthday cake wheeled out to mark the anniversary. Photographer Hunter Abrams documented the evening, capturing attendees against the backdrop of the store that has defined the retailer’s identity for more than a century.
The guest list gathered a broad slice of American fashion. Designers Michael Kors, Jason Wu, Christopher John Rogers, Prabal Gurung, Isaac Mizrahi and Wes Gordon attended, joining cultural figures including Natalia Dyer, Padma Lakshmi, Chanel Iman, Nicky Hilton and Rachel Zoe. The mix reflected the store’s long-standing position as a meeting point for designers, stylists and their clients.
The party formed one part of a wider anniversary program. A number of design houses created special pieces to mark the milestone, among them a capsule from Alaia and commemorative shoe collections from Roger Vivier and Manolo Blahnik. The projects tied the celebration to the brands that have filled the store’s floors and windows over the decades. Several of the anniversary pieces were offered through the retailer, extending the milestone from a single evening into a run of merchandise built around the 125th year.
Bergdorf Goodman traces its history to 1901, when it began as a partnership between Herman Bergdorf and Edwin Goodman before Goodman took sole control and built the business into one of the country’s best-known luxury retailers. The Fifth Avenue store, near the southern edge of Central Park, has remained the company’s single flagship, a rarity among American department stores. In marking 125 years inside that same building, the retailer used the anniversary to underline the role of the physical store at a moment when much of luxury retail has shifted online.
