“When someone looks into a Tiffany window, I want him or her to do a double—even a triple—take. I want him to experience the sudden fresh insight the Zen philosophers call the ‘ahness’ of things.”
—Gene Moore
Tiffany & Co. founder Charles Lewis Tiffany was a consummate showman. Long before his time, he understood the universal human desire to dream about something bigger than one’s self; and from the very first store in New York City in 1837, Tiffany’s fantastical window displays have inspired just that. Charles Tiffany understood the importance of theatre, and he was willing to put anything and everything in his windows in order to pull a crowd. In 1868, the showman P.T. Barnum commissioned a miniature jewelled silver horse carriage as a gift for the 2'11" circus performer General Tom Thumb and his bride. The carriage was displayed in Tiffany’s flagship windows at 550-522 Broadway and brought in pedestrians as they sauntered by.
From the early days until today, Tiffany’s windows have acted as a public gallery. Accessible to all who walked past, they entertained, surprised and, of course, created desire.
When Gene Moore joined the company in 1955, he defined window display as we know it today. Renowned for his radical, witty and topical designs, Moore’s pioneering windows were in touch with the times and occasionally outrageous.
Mixing the extraordinary with the ordinary, he placed legendary Tiffany jewelry with unexpected, everyday materials like household string, popcorn and even a toy dump truck. In one notable display, the “worm” that a bird tugged from a pile of dirt was, in reality, a sparkling necklace. He enlisted soon-to-be celebrated artists to create windows with him, and during his 39 years at the company, designed more than 5,000 window displays.
The enduring allure of Tiffany’s windows is captured in the iconic film Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Holly Golightly, played by Audrey Hepburn®, is drawn to the window display at the Tiffany flagship store on Fifth Avenue in New York City. “When I get it, the only thing that does any good is to jump in a cab and go to Tiffany’s. It calms me down right away, the quietness and the proud look of it; nothing very bad could happen to you there,” she says.
Audrey Hepburn®—Trademark and Likeness property of Sean Hepburn Ferrer and Luca Dotti—All Rights Reserved.
In 2018, Tiffany’s world-famous windows were featured in a book published by Assouline, Windows at Tiffany & Co., which showcased the awe and wonder of the store’s imaginative displays.
The store’s glamorous holiday window displays, unveiled each November, capture the magic of the season and have become a New York City tradition, drawing thousands of visitors each year.
Today, under the direction of Richard Moore (no relation to Gene Moore) and Christopher Young, art, sculpture, lighting and set design continue to come together in Tiffany windows across the world, creating moments of pure beauty, fantasy and wit.