Portrait of an Artist

On a sunny Sunday afternoon in late May, I stood in the entrance to the recently refreshed Hickey Freeman store on Madison Avenue in New York, flanked by a small army of nattily dressed male mannequins, cleverly positioned to show off the latest spring fashions by the venerable American menswear retailer. Bright-patterned shirts, creamy linen slacks and jauntily positioned hats adorned the fashion vanguard, ties magically held aloft as if lifted by a gentle breeze – a signature visual element of the designer I was there to visit.

I glanced outside the glass front door and across the busy avenue – seemingly oblivious to the human and vehicular traffic racing past him – stood a slim, cool-casual dressed man, munching on an apple while intently studying the narrow store façade above me. Catching my gaze, he ditched the core and sprinted across the street to greet me, a human hurricane of gestures and exclamations.

Tom Beebe, Hickey Freeman/W Diamond Group’s vp, creative director and our industry’s tireless promoter of all things visual merchandising, is a design dynamo and industry legend, and yet he shies away from the spotlight, letting others shine. Case in point: the Algonquin Wits & Wizards event (see page 12), that started as a casual coffee klatch of Tom’s industry friends, and has since grown to thrice-yearly gatherings of industry insiders, with sponsorships and noted guest speakers. And yet, Tom remains determined to retain the fun, casual atmosphere of those small early get-togethers (where he scrambled to scrimp together a few bucks for cheese and crackers and everyone went dutch on the drinks), artfully wrangling a growing guest list while remaining committed to including eager young design students and struggling artists.

Tom led me on a whirlwind tour of his refreshed store, generously crediting outside designers and suppliers who helped achieve the retailer’s vision. In a tiny back office, delicate pencil drawings of future displays lay strewn about his desk, evidence of a playful, vivid imagination and attention to visual craftsmanship.

Later, over drinks at a nearby bistro, we laughed and gossiped a bit, and pondered the ephemeral nature of visual merchandising and the vagaries of retail: here today, gone tomorrow. Tom is old-school professional: committed to his craft, passionate, not afraid to get his hands dirty (rubber bands stacked on his wrist, T-pin in his lapel) but also future focused and open to the new.

And then, as quickly as he had appeared, he was gone, dashing uptown on his weekend night to offer support and counsel to an emerging young artist, his familiar sign-off echoing in my head, “As we spin, spin, spin…”