Stars and Snow on Fifth Avenue

Saks Fifth Avenue unveiled this year’s Holiday Snowflake Spectacular at the New York flagship on November 21, 2005. The event focused on the high-tech snowflake light show that represents an evolution from last year’s production.

And actress Rachel Weisz helped Cartier kick off the holiday season by unveiling the familiar Cartier holiday bow and windows. For the 26th year, Cartier wrapped the Fifth Avenue Mansion in a traditional red holiday ribbon and decorated the facade of the building with signature red Cartier boxes. The 215-foot ribbon and 8-foot bow was completely lit with 95,000 custom red LED lights, representing the largest display of custom LEDs in New York.

The Saks show features 50 distinct vintage-inspired snowflakes whose illumination on the storefront is choreographed to a modern version of “Carol of the Bells,” with the “snow” falling on Fifth Avenue at pre-programmed intervals.

“We have energized Saks Fifth Avenue’s tradition of celebrating the holidays with excitement, innovation and great style,” said ceo Fred Wilson. “We are thrilled to have partnered with Philips Electronics to create this incredible break-through program, as a gift to our customers and the city of New York.”

Saks’ display features 50 fully programmable, unique snowflakes reaching 10 stories high. The project required 8000 feet of steel, 5 miles of lighting, 72,000 LED modules, 15 multicolor changing uplights, 40 strobes, 13,000 feet of cable and more than 5000 hours of production. It also includes lighted snowflakes in holiday windows and in-store treatments at SFA locations nationwide. The snowflake motif will be repeated on bags, boxes, in the catalog and through holiday ornaments.