Lights, Camera, Fashion — Bergdorf Goodman Turns 125
Lights, camera, fashion! The legacy — and one of the last standing glamour stores from the heydays of the golden age of style — is officially celebrating 125 years.
On-location in New York City, CBS News journalist Dave Carlin peeks inside Bergdorf Goodman’s milestone anniversary celebration, where the Fifth Avenue institution is doing what it has done for generations: making luxury feel like theater.
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125 Years of Bergdorf Glamour
Bergdorf Goodman is marking a century and a quarter with anniversary windows, designer collaborations, limited-edition pieces and a full Fifth Avenue victory lap.
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Huzzah-hurrah to 125 years of luxury and poise. Founded in 1901 after Edwin Goodman joined Herman Bergdorf’s tailoring business, Bergdorf Goodman would go on to become one of New York’s defining luxury fashion institutions — not by going everywhere, but by making one corner of Fifth Avenue feel like the center of everything.
That corner came into full form in 1928, when Bergdorf Goodman moved into its current Beaux-Arts home at Fifth Avenue and 58th Street, built on the former site of the Cornelius Vanderbilt II mansion. Very old New York. Very fashion mythology. Very Bergdorf.
For the 125th, the store is not keeping things demure. Bergdorf Goodman has rolled out anniversary windows, exclusive collaborations and limited-edition pieces from more than 100 brands, while Very Bergdorf, a new Assouline book, packages the store’s history, fantasy windows and fashion lore into one glossy keepsake.
And naturally, the anniversary landed during New York Fashion Week. The September celebration brought designers, fashion-world friends and longtime Bergdorf devotees into the store for one very purple, very polished birthday bash, complete with a live performance from Ravyn Lenae.
The timing fits because Bergdorf Goodman has never really behaved like a normal department store. It has long sold a fantasy of New York fashion itself — from thee windows to the sales floor to that impossible-to-miss Fifth Avenue address. A shopping trip, yes. But also a scene.
There are fewer and fewer stores left that can honestly claim this kind of history, personality and straight-up fashion drama. Bergdorf still can. So yes — huzzah-hurrah.
Watch CBS News Go Inside Bergdorf Goodman’s 125th Anniversary
CBS News New York’s Dave Carlin takes viewers inside Bergdorf Goodman’s 125th anniversary celebration and its enduring Fifth Avenue world of luxury and style.
Sources: Bergdorf Goodman; CBS News New York; Vogue.
