A rural runway

In a hidden glade deep within Saks 5th Ave flagship store, we created a surreal scenario of mannequins meandering about in the latest Hugo Boss collection. The design features an impossibly thin moss surface with birch tree trunks 'magically' self-supporting.

Armani: Simple Chic

For Armani's lifestyle store on 5th ave and 56th st, the windows were freshly done to herald the arrival of Giorgio Armani himself, his first appearance in the US in years. The specially textured and colored acrylic backdrops were imported from Italy. Each grouping of panels were reverse-custom colored and/or mirrored. From across the street this created a beautiful array of vibrant colors representing the season's collection.

Rootstein: Pool Party

Every year, Rootstein, maker of arguably the world's finest mannequins, redesigns their flagship North American showroom.  This year was inspired by vintage black and white photography taken poolside. All of the chrome railing, staircases to diving boards, platforms and "pool" were painstakingly produced and installed to create a seamless fantasy environment. Rootstein did an amazing job as always with costumes, make-up and hair to carry through the monochromatic theme. The video at the bottom shows a 360 view of the showroom and the great lighting effects!

Throwback: 1997 - DIFFA - Devil in a Red Dress

For the very first DIFFA: Dining by Design, the theme was simply RED. Anne Klein sponsored a table and working with their design team, who came up with the idea of a 'devil in a red dress'. The mannequin stands on a smoldering rock rising from the middle of the table. Surrounding the table were ten chairs with 6 and 8 foot high red plexi flame shaped backs.  Geoff designed and produced the table cloth and her dress, ombred from deepest coal black at the bottom transitioning to bright red at her neck. The swaroski crystals also ombred up in ruby red and diamond. The feathered headdress with spiraling horns, the pitch fork and her tail, casually draped over her right arm, were all custom made by Geoff.

Shown above and below are photo taken for publication by ELLE DECOR Magazine.

In addition to the flaming chairs, the table was set with dozens of candles to reinforce the element of hell-fire.

Geoff's design was also published in New York Times!

The cover of Elle Decor featuring Geoff's fiery design.

Pool Party!!

In the season of heavy coats and scarves, the Rootstein showroom in New York took a decidedly more tropical outlook this December. Evoking the mood of a black and white photograph, the entire monochromatic showroom is produced shades of grey, black and white. Reminiscent of high fashion photography from the 80's (with a nod back to the 30's), the mannequins, wearing genius costumes custom designed by the artists at Rootstein, frolic in a glamorous poolside environment created by the team at Geoff Howell Studio including diving boards, MC Escher-like stairs going up and down, in and out, all surrounded with gleaming chrome railing and ladders. Even the water is a black and white photographic image.

Here in the front window,  things heat up with palm trees, hammocks and skimpy bathing suits! For our part, we created the perfect white box in which the three silver palm trees, which we also produced, sway in the imaginary warm breeze.

On a particularly sad note the NY director of Rootstein for many years, Michael Steward, recently passed away after an all too short battle with cancer. He will be greatly missed.

More than just smoke and mirrors

For Adele Rootstein's 2012 showroom, Geoff Howell Studio helped to created a 'religious' experience. Although you cannot tell by the photos, walls within the showroom were built to create a cruciform shaped environment. In this theatrical interpretation of a 'rite of passage', Rootstein's own custom mannequins form a precessional towards the 'altar' where mannequins are grouped on various levels within beams of heavenly light. The walls, floor and risers in the center of the room were all covered with a custom dyed silver foil backed cork wallpaper in a shade of deep purple.

A closeup of the custom dyed silver foil backed cork wallpaper

Going Back to Your Rootstein

Rootstein, maker of the finest mannequins in the world, has a showroom on w. 19th st. Famous for its spectacular window displays, the showroom behind the windows is equally as mesmerizing. Every 6 months, the showroom is re-done with a new theme in mind. For this market week, they have re-created an imaginary evening in the late 70's at Halston's infamous apartment in the Olympic Tower (at the end of this post we've included photos of his actual apartment)

Elements from his apartment were creatively re-purposed to fit the showroom space, making a dramatic backdrop for their new mannequin collection.  We built all of the black lacquered oak platforms, the floating staircase and faux mezzanie and the glassed in life-size terrarium.

Below are more photos of the decked out 'celebrity' mannequins reposted from The Bespoken: For Gentlemen blog. Amazingly, all of the clothing is designed by the creative director at Rootstein using the finest fabrics and incredible design details worthy of Halston's own work.

ROOTSTEIN

Halston's place