Macy’s Spring Windows, New York

Holidays aren’t the only time of year that Paul Olszewski, director of windows at Macy’s Herald Square, loses sleep. Every spring, Macy’s annual Flower Show calls for a staff of more than 30 people to transform in-store displays and 39-plus windows at the New York flagship into a festival of flowers. “For a week, we’d install two windows during the day, then stay and work overnight with the nursery staff to place the flowers,” Olszewski says.

For its 35th year, the show featured a “Dream in Color” theme, using more than 100,000 plants and flowers. Olszewski says that Robin Hall, executive producer of the show, joked about using flamingos in the displays during a brainstorm session. That humor came to life at the Broadway Street entrance in the form of three 10-foot tall, handcrafted flamingo topiaries filled with more than 5000 pink kalanchoe flowers.

Windows along Broadway further celebrated the popular lawn ornament through the story “Floradora the Flamingo” as she travels to six living gardens, including Mexico, Japan and Las Vegas, before arriving in New York. Oversized parts of flamingos, created by Spaeth Design (New York), are featured in each window, with accessories, such as Japanese sandals or tropical shorts, relating to that window’s setting.

Even the retailer’s fashion windows on 34th Street get in the floral spirit. Twenty Catwalk Darrol Mannequins, donated by Bernstein Display (Brooklyn, N.Y.), modeled spring fashions in an ethereal setting adorned with colorful, intricate paper flower headpieces and garlands, crafted by New York-paper artist Eloise Corr Danch.