Loro Piana Covers Bergdorf Goodman With Light Display And Installation

The Loro Piana light display takeover of Bergdorf Goodman.

Photo Courtesy of Bergdorf Goodman and Loro Piana

For about a year now, New York has had an unexpected new tourist attraction: a stack of mammoth-sized, brightly lit Louis Vuitton trunks forming a façade around the flagship store on the corner of 57^th Street and Fifth Avenue while it undergoes a major renovation.

Now, another architectural monument will illuminate the city’s most famous intersection, thanks to a light display wrapping around the building that houses Bergdorf Goodman on the opposite corner, courtesy of Loro Piana. The Italian brand, which defined Quiet Luxury, is kicking off a pre-holiday season light spectacle on the façade starting today until October 26^th, with an interactive installation in the store’s windows and interior activations through November 3^rd. The delightful gesture traces the product journey from its roots through the finished product, punctuating the craft.

The light mapping technique depicts a visual journey, beginning with a Mongolian landscape, where Loro Piana sources its cashmere. It transitions to a field of thistle flowers, the Loro Piana emblem. A thread made of light gracefully weaves, taking the shape of the brand’s Quarona factory in Piedmont, Italy. It continues circling the globe before arriving in New York, where a Loro Piana truck appears filled with raw fiber bales moving across the façade. Manhattan’s skyline appears, dotted with Loro Piana’s puppets representing its artisans, morphing and transforming the lines, curves, and volumes of the building, accentuated by the light’s effect.

Art Deco-inspired windows harken back to the Loro Piana houses’ 1924 origins, punctuating founding values, history, and quest for uniqueness, but also demonstrating the connection to New York City and its own Art Deco history. The displays feature backdrops made of intricate wood marquetry-inspired craft, playfully depicting the artisans through wooden puppets engaged in various tasks involved in the making of Loro Piana products from start to finish, while also echoing the light display. The color palette is comprised of a rich palette of luminous gold, deep brown, and dark green.

One window features the fiore di cardo, part of Loro Piana’s coat of arms since 1951, which was historically used as a tool to brush the surface of the most precious fabrics. Another shows painterly sketches of pioneering Italian artist Marcello Dudovich, while another depicts miniature vintage cars cruising on the iconic Suitcase Stripe motif on a kummel background – the iconic color of the brand – an homage to Loro Piana’s passion for classic cars and the art of travel.

One vitrine features the founder’s grandson and deputy chairman Pier Luigi Loro Piana’s quote, “Luxury is inextricably linked to quality,” woven into fabric by a wooden loom against a dark green background, a color his grandfather Sergio Loro Piana preferred to wear.

The event will also feature personalization services and exclusive products. Two key brand items are the Grande Unita scarf— Loro Piana’s heirloom cashmere style and first finished item launched in the early 1980s, displaying the brand’s textile heritage that arrived in New York in 1994 at the first concept store, and the classic Unito blanket can be embroidered with initials and more by Loro Piana artisans.

Exclusive offerings include a softly structured wool over shirt in warm rust, paired with trousers for men and a tone-on-tone grey cashmere ensemble complete with a cloche hat in a bold animal print. The initiative will also offer plenty of curated giftable items leading into the holiday season, such as a new Library of Prints Carré collection of scarves, sensorial beanies, and the iconic Loro Piana baseball caps crafted with Cash Storm System or the Wind Storm System, perfect for New York winters.

The partnership with Bergdorf Goodman dates back to the 1990s, when the tony retailer started selling the Maison’s accessories, scarves, hats, and gloves. In 2003, the Loro Piana house opened its first corner there and developed exclusive products for Bergdorf Goodman.

The engaging retail partnership and display couldn’t come at a better time, as the company is one of the latest luxury brands to come under scrutiny for exploitative labor practices. While the reality of that might not be a pretty picture, the brand delivered on bringing a gorgeous public art display to New York.