The holiday shopping season is without a doubt the most competitive time for retailers looking to attract customers. A tradition still going strong in New York City is elaborate window displays. Each year we survey retail hotspots around the city looking for the most creative, eye catching and best designed windows of the season. In particular we look for strong visual contrast, interesting materials and anything surprising.

Overall for 2012, we didn’t see anything that pushed the technological boundaries. Instead we were drawn to retailers who opted to create displays with a large volume of objects like TSE and Club Monaco. The results look a bit like the work of a hoarder.

Another theme we saw around the city was frozen windows. Ralph Lauren, Dior, Anthropologie and ABC Carpet and Home all simulated snow and ice which thanks to recent warm winters, NYC hasn’t seen much of for real.

The best time to see any of these windows is at night and lighting becomes a key element. Boutiques Reed Krakoff and Elie Tahari used nothing but light fixtures as design elements. They stray from any direct reference to holiday imagery but manage to attract attention with high volume lumen’s.

Click any of the images for a larger view.

ABC Carpet and Home - Broadway

Anthropologie - Rockefeller Center

Almost all of the elements including the table, trees and animals were made of paper.

Bergdorf Goodman - 5th Ave

Club Monaco – 5th Ave

Best use of gold spray paint.

Dior - 57th St

Elie Tahari – West Broadway

Custom chandeliers made from bicycle rims and light fixtures.

Louis Vuitton – 5th Ave

Moroso - Greene St

Moon Chairs designed by Tokujin Yoshioka.

Paul Smith – Greene St

Ralph Lauren – Madison Ave

Reed Krakoff – Madison Ave

TSE - Wooster St