Two live girls, one couch and not much clothing.
It’s not your mother’s holiday window display. If tradition is your cup of eggnog, head up the street to Lord & Taylor’s and take in the marionette puppets and candy-cane carousels.
But if edgy is on your list this year, check out the live action in a window in an otherwise empty Fifth Avenue building at 38th Street. It’s less winter wonderland than peep show, to the delight of gawking crowds yesterday.
The scene is a young woman’s apartment, where two shapely models try on clothes, flip through magazines and even paint each other’s fingernails. After dark they switch to evening wear, and spend hours getting dressed for a night on the town. All in front of floor-to-ceiling windows.
Creative director Carol Powley, who designed the show for clothing line XOXO, calls these living mannequins “window theater.”
“I told them just to hang out and not to engage with the public at all,” Powley said. “When I want them to change clothes, I send them a text message. It’s very voyeuristic. You want to be looking at them, but you wonder if you should be.”
No surprise that changing time, when the models strip to their underwear, draws the biggest crowd. They even drew the police yesterday thanks to a complaint from a female pedestrian. The cops chose not to interfere, and the window theater is slated to continue though Dec. 6.
“Half-naked girls will always make people stop and stare,” said passer-by Melissa Federico, 24, visiting from Atlanta. “Anything new and interactive is a great way to promote a brand. It’s just strange that most of the people watching are guys, even though XOXO only sells women’s clothes.”
Powley acknowledged that the display was geared toward gift-buying boyfriends.
It’s a level of intimacy that struck some people as odd yesterday, and not just the wives hurrying their husbands along.
“I was raised in Holland and used to live in the red-light district,” said Evert Degraeve, 50. “This window doesn’t look like a clothing advertisement to me. It looks like these girls are waiting for some customers to come along.”