VMSD - February 2018 - 56

Checking Out

Leigh Ann Tischler
M i Ch ae l st e e l e P h o t o g raP h Y, J e r se Y C itY, N.J .

Bloomingdale's director of windows recounts an eventful 25-year career in visual
merchandising - and it all began as a 12-year-old staring at a store ceiling.
Do you remember your
introduction to visual?
I remember it clearly. I was 12 years old, shopping
at a Macy's store in Paramus, N.J. It was the juniors
department, a huge round room with a rotunda
ceiling. I thought, 'Wow, this must be a really cool
job. Who builds all of these displays?'
And a career was born?
Not right away. I graduated from college with a
degree in painting and no idea what to do next. You
don't start selling your artwork right away.
Then visual came calling?
I did the calling. I answered an ad for a display
person at that same Macy's store - in that same
juniors department.
Was it what you expected?
It was grueling. We were doing holiday, I had to
make these huge arrangements of pheasant feathers, pine cones and greenery. It was 14 hours a day
that turned, literally, into 14 back-breaking months.
Then what?
I got a nine-month freelance job working on a new
Macy's store in Arlington, Va. I worked with William Herbst, who was renovations coordinator [at
the time].
A great mentor.
Yes. I learned a lot. I ordered mannequins, reviewed
documents, dealt with special lighting, special fixtures, wallcoverings. I had never cared about a hat
riser or countertop fixture before then. But, after a
few years, Macy's stopped building new stores or
renovating older ones, so I went my merry way.
So goodbye Macy's, hello ... ?
I went to Bloomingdale's for three years, as VM for

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cosmetics and fashion accessories. Then to Sony.
They wanted to open high-concept stores around
the country.
A fun experience?
An amazing few years. We opened the Metreon
center, an entertainment mall in San Francisco,
and remodeled Sony Plaza in New York, which had
six windows on Madison Avenue, so I was finally
working on windows. Christine Belich, who was
executive creative director, and I would go to lunch
and draw things up on the backs of napkins.
But later, not so much fun?
It got very corporate and a lot of the rules changed.
Christine left, Sony moved everyone to San Diego.
I saw the writing on the wall. They were going to
close the Sony store and Sony Plaza.
So back to Bloomingdale's?
Yes, in 2011 I landed at Bloomingdale's, as men's
and kids' interior visual manager. Then, in 2015,
Harry Medina retired as window director. I said,
that's the job I've always wanted: a dream job. And
I continued to have amazing mentors, like Jack
Hruska and John Klimkowski. I feel like a really
blessed person. Not a lot of people can say that. 

Just Let
Go

You've worked
for some amazing
people. Do you
recall a particularly
important piece of
advice?
Toward the end of the Arlington,
Va., project, William Herbst said,
'You've got to let go now. You've
been doing this for eight months.
The visual managers and regionals are now going to interpret your
vision their way.'
Those words have helped me so. I
have a fantastic team, so now I'm
not insulted when they don't like
my idea, or they turn my idea into
something more amazing.

Difficult for an
artist?
Yes, artists are very singular -
'Nobody's going to tell me how to
do my work.' If this were my personal artwork, I wouldn't let anybody change it.

M atthe w C ar ase lla, Ne w Yor k

Interview by Steve Kaufman

http://www.vmsd.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of VMSD - February 2018