Tom Beebe, creative director and window magician for Paul Stewart (New York), announced that it was time to “change the upholstery” at the family-owned Madison Avenue menswear retailer. So the man who has handled visuals, advertising, catalog and a web site (slated for September launch) for the past 14 years said he was “jumping off the diving board” into the unknown.
“I've done the traditional menswear,” Beebe said. “Perhaps I'll work with a cutting-edge company reaching out to a younger audience.” At this point, he adds, his options are wide open and he's keeping them there.
Before joining Paul Stuart, Beebe had worked with other notable retailers, including Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman and Gimbels. Beebe was a great admirer of visual legend Gene Moore, and earned the praise of the Tiffany & Co. veteran. “He's taken men's clothes out of being dull, dreary nothings to real excitement,” Moore once said about Beebe.
Beebe is also credited for his tireless efforts to advance the status of, and unify, the New York window design community. In the spring of 1998, Beebe served as design liaison to a group of 15 of Manhattan's most prestigious retailers who participated in The Window Show, an off-site Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum event, which was dedicated in Moore's memory.
This is not the only recent shake-up in the New York visual merchandising community. Earlier this month, Graham Belman, visual director for Henri Bendel, left his post of five years.