After having completed renovations to its floors on the second, third, fourth, and sixth levels, Tiffany & Co. has turned its attention to its Fifth Ave. façade. The company famous for its robin’s egg blue box is installing adjacent doors to its current revolving door on the legendary Fifth and 57th St. flagship, and moving the revolving doors further in. Once completed, it will offer greater access to the store, but that meant shuttering its Fifth Ave. doors through September.

In lieu of standard construction scaffolding, Tiffany’s enlisted friend and artist Ruben Toledo to create a façade that would be digitally transformed from his canvas onto the large pieces of plywood. The result is three versions of Audrey Hepburn’s character, Holly Golightly, from Breakfast at Tiffany’s, all of which went up right after July 4. Women wearing little black dresses, a man taking a photo of two tourists in front of the Tiffany’s sign, and even Robert Rufino, Tiffany’s creative director, and his Jack Russell terrier, Windsor, are included in the design. “It’s his vision of what the sidewalk would typically look like outside the store,” said a company rep. “And of course, to no one’s surprise, everyone is carrying a Tiffany’s bag.”

While the Toledo art is certainly a novel and artistic approach, what’s more significant is the actual construction itself: it’s the first time the doors are being altered since the store opened in 1940.

Posted by Lawren at July 25, 2005 08:51 AM | Trackbacks (0)

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