In 2008, Head of Bloomingdale’s Window Display Director, Harry Medina, asked Khuzami Studio to produce their famous Holiday Windows. Vicki Khuzami immediately scouted the city to assemble a super team of 14 talented artists. The schedule was tight, and every inch of the window sets was to be hand-painted…no mannequins, costumes, or props would be used.

The materials for production were only 4’ x 8’ MDF boards and gallons of Benjamin Moore house paints. Harry Medina had created a set of concept sketches that provided the ideas for each window, based on the Christmas songs from Tony Bennett’s Christmas album, which Mr. Bennett would be performing on opening
night. Upon learning of this, Vicki Khuzami then created 1950’s vintage Christmas themes for the windows.

The first task was to photograph the models in vintage clothing that suited the theme of each window. The next task involved researching appropriate items that one would have in a vintage living room, a kitchen, a children’s room, etc. Vicki soon realized she simply wanted to create the same kind of Christmas she had as a little girl growing up before society turned a cynical eye on the traditional holiday. She wanted a day defined purely by candy canes, cookies, cocktails, and huge, over-the-top decorated Christmas trees with piles of presents below, just as she remembered.

Now that her vision became clearer, the folders of researched images and models photographed were composed together on the computer for each scene. Then
each separate item in the designs was printed out in a 3/4” scale and arranged in the 3d paper model sets.
After the sets were composed, each paper item was then taken from the model set one at a time and projected to the original 3/4 foot scale, and outlined on paper. Each one of the paper templates was then labeled and delivered to the Bloomingdale’s wood shop where skilled carpenters carefully cut out each piece on the MDF board and then shipped it back to Khuzami Studio.

Finally, the artists set about painting, in an illustrative style of the 50’s, each of over 500 pieces that made up the separate sets full of objects, furniture, backdrop murals, and dozens of portraits.
To say these artists worked with amazing speed and incredible talent is quite an understatement. The photos will leave no doubt to prove their brilliance.

One by one, each piece finished was assembled into the appropriate full-sized set in the studio. When the sets had their final touches, each set was then disassembled, packed, and brought back to Bloomingdales and installed into the windows.
Then working at night, the windows were magically lit by lighting designer Westwood Papile and art directed by Harry Medina for their final loving Christmas glow.

The whole process took approximately 3.5 months, working 6-7 days a week, a box of protein bars under Vicki’s desk. The team of artists included Connor Owens, assistant to Khuzami, and Leon Benn, Anton Sherin, Nick Cope, Amaya Gurpide, Faizulla Khamraer, Oleg Levin, Rodion Barad, Alex Passapera, Yael Levy, and Krasso Mihaylov. The French team: Anna Mimouni, Olivier Wyart, and Francois Goupil. Brett Kahler created the motorized set pieces. And lastly, it was Adele Khuzami, our Blessed Mother of the Studio, who kept us all sane, organized, and paid.

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