Linda Fargo
{{Short description|American fashion business executive (born 1957)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2024}}
File:Linda Fargo (2024) (cropped).jpg
Linda Fargo is an American fashion business executive. Since 2006, she has served as the senior vice president of the fashion office and as the director of women's fashion and store presentation for the Bergdorf Goodman department store in New York City.{{cite magazine |url=https://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1838865_1838857_1838740,00.html |title=Linda Fargo – Women in Luxury |magazine=Time |date=September 4, 2008 |publisher=Time |access-date=September 20, 2015}}
Early life and education
Born in 1957, Fargo grew up in the suburbs of Milwaukee and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.{{cite web |url=http://www.businessoffashion.com/linda-fargo |title=Linda Fargo | BoF 500 | The People Shaping the Global Fashion Industry |publisher=businessoffashion.com |access-date=September 20, 2015}} After her move to New York, she started as a window dresser at Macy's, eventually becoming the visual director.{{Cite web |url=https://www.businessoffashion.com/community/people/linda-fargo |title=Linda Fargo is part of the BoF 500 |website=The Business of Fashion |language=en-GB |access-date=April 20, 2020}}
Career
Fargo joined Bergdorf Goodman as the display director in June 1996.{{Cite news |last=Colman |first=David |date=December 1, 1996 |title=Holiday Windows for the Id in All of Us |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/12/01/style/holiday-windows-for-the-id-in-all-of-us.html |access-date=September 27, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151202152157/https://www.nytimes.com/1996/12/01/style/holiday-windows-for-the-id-in-all-of-us.html |archive-date=December 2, 2015 |issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite news |last=Schiro |first=Anne-Marie |date=February 10, 1998 |title=Patterns |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/02/10/style/patterns-495450.html |access-date=September 27, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150527081200/https://www.nytimes.com/1998/02/10/style/patterns-495450.html |archive-date=May 27, 2015 |issn=0362-4331}} Fargo was one of eighteen Manhattan window-display designers that collaborated on the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum's The Window Show in May 1999.{{Cite news |last=Tiefert |first=Rita |date=Sep–Oct 1999 |title=Yes, they do windows |volume=14 |work=How |publisher=F+W |issue=5 |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/233349064/FC6A5AB1C3F4403CPQ/ |url-access=subscription |access-date=September 27, 2021 |id={{ProQuest|233349064}}}}{{Cite news |last=Budick |first=Ariella |date=May 19, 1999 |title=The Art Is the View / Cooper-Hewitt frames a show around window shopping |work=Newsday |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/279227066/FC6A5AB1C3F4403CPQ/ |url-access=subscription |access-date=September 27, 2021 |issn=0278-5587 |id={{ProQuest|279227066}}}} That year she was both vice president for visual presentations and director of visual merchandising.{{Cite news |last=Kaplan |first=Fred |author-link=Fred Kaplan (journalist) |date=December 7, 2000 |title=It's Window Time in Manhattan 'Happy Collision' of Theater and Art and Advertising |work=The Boston Globe |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/405359827/FC6A5AB1C3F4403CPQ/ |url-access=subscription |access-date=September 27, 2021 |issn=0743-1791 |id={{ProQuest|405359827}}}}{{Cite news |last=Norwich |first=William |date=December 31, 2000 |title=Style & Entertaining; Slush Fun |page=48 |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/31/magazine/style-entertaining-slush-fun.html |access-date=September 27, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150527142252/https://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/31/magazine/style-entertaining-slush-fun.html |archive-date=May 27, 2015 |issn=0362-4331}} She and Robert Burke designed the 2001 Whitney Museum of American Art's annual gala called Nightclub as Monument, inspired on New York café society and the museum's retrospective of Edward Steichen's photographic works from the 1920s and 1930s.{{Cite news |last=Columbia |first=David Patrick |date=Jan 2001 |title=David Patrick Columbia's New York social diary |volume=15 |work=Quest |publisher=Quest Media |issue=1 |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/215663471/FC6A5AB1C3F4403CPQ/ |url-access=subscription |access-date=September 27, 2021 |id={{ProQuest|215663471}}}}
After the September 11 attacks, Fargo and her team "completely readjusted" their display plans, which were originally going to be "an homage to the arts". Instead, each of the Bergdorf Goodman Building's windows on Fifth Avenue were decorated in a separate value or virtue,{{Cite news |last=Kaufman |first=Leslie |date=November 15, 2001 |title=Windows as Mirrors of a City's Mood; After Sept. 11, Department Stores Rethink Holiday Displays |page=1 |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/15/nyregion/windows-mirrors-city-s-mood-after-sept-11-department-stores-rethink-holiday.html |access-date=September 27, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150527164205/https://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/15/nyregion/windows-mirrors-city-s-mood-after-sept-11-department-stores-rethink-holiday.html |archive-date=May 27, 2015 |issn=0362-4331}} while the 57th Street windows were a black-and-white collage of New York landmarks, and the 58th Street windows were centered around children.{{Cite news |last=Wilson |first=Anamaria |date=November 20, 2001 |title=Window Shopping |work=Women's Wear Daily |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/231221844/FC6A5AB1C3F4403CPQ/ |url-access=subscription |access-date=September 27, 2021 |issn=0043-7581 |id={{ProQuest|231221844}}}} One of the Fifth Avenue windows that year was highlighted by The New York Times as capturing the transition between "traditional sparkles and reds to a quieter, neutral wheat and organic palette" in holiday tastes.{{Cite news |last=Cunningham |first=Bill |author-link=Bill Cunningham (American photographer) |date=December 16, 2001 |title=On the Street: A Smooth Shift Into Neutral |page=4 |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/16/style/on-the-street-a-smooth-shift-into-neutral.html |access-date=September 27, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150527165019/https://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/16/style/on-the-street-a-smooth-shift-into-neutral.html |archive-date=May 27, 2015 |issn=0362-4331}} Assouline published Dreams Through the Glass: Windows from Bergdorf Goodman, written by Fargo herself, the $50 book was a retrospective of her displays, which Harper's Bazaar called "designs [which] prove that at its most sublime, window dressing is an art form."{{Cite magazine |date=Nov 2003 |title=News you can use |magazine=Harper's Bazaar |issue=3504 |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/221410307/534AEDC8E6504243PQ/ |url-access=subscription |access-date=September 28, 2021 |issn=0017-7873 |id={{ProQuest|221410307}}}}{{Cite news |last=Treffinger |first=Stephen |date=November 20, 2003 |title=Glamour in the Windows and on the Ceilings at Bergdorf |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/20/garden/currents-stores-glamour-in-the-windows-and-on-the-ceilings-at-bergdorf.html |access-date=September 28, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171226095457/https://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/20/garden/currents-stores-glamour-in-the-windows-and-on-the-ceilings-at-bergdorf.html |archive-date=December 26, 2017 |issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite news |last=Maslin |first=Janet Maslin |author-link=Janet Maslin |date=November 21, 2003 |title=The Book Tide Is Running, For Readers And Browsers |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/21/books/critic-s-notebook-the-book-tide-is-running-for-readers-and-browsers.html |access-date=September 28, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171229044226/https://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/21/books/critic-s-notebook-the-book-tide-is-running-for-readers-and-browsers.html |archive-date=December 29, 2017 |issn=0362-4331}}
In March 2017, Fargo opened the Linda's shop on the fourth floor of the Bergdorf Goodman Building.{{Cite news |last=Harris |first=Taylor |date=May 3, 2017 |title=V.I.P. Shoppers Toast Linda's, a New Shop at Bergdorf Goodman |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/03/fashion/linda-fargo-shop-in-shop-at-bergdorf-goodman.html |access-date=August 5, 2024 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331 |postscript=none}}{{cite web |last=McCarthy |first=Lauren |title=Linda Fargo's New Bergdorf Goodman Store Is Both A "Shopping Paradise And A Fantasy Closet" |website=W Magazine |date=May 7, 2017 |url=https://www.wmagazine.com/story/linda-fargo-bergdorf-goodman-new-store-shopping |access-date=August 5, 2024}} At Bergdorf, she works with David Hoey, the present window dresser and senior director for visual presentation, with whom she creates "about 450 windows a year."{{Cite news |last=La Ferla |first=Ruth |date=May 13, 2003 |title=Front Row |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/13/nyregion/front-row.html |access-date=September 28, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171227040533/https://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/13/nyregion/front-row.html |archive-date=December 27, 2017 |issn=0362-4331}}
In media
At a Cystic Fibrosis Foundation fundraiser held at Macy's in 1985, Fargo wore "lace gloves and a black dress borrowed from Kim Stoddard," which The New York Times described as "very new wave".{{Cite news |last=Dullea |first=Georgia |date=April 2, 1985 |title=Macy's: Flowering of a Party |page=8 |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/04/02/style/macy-s-flowering-of-a-party.html |access-date=September 27, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171128061632/https://www.nytimes.com/1985/04/02/style/macy-s-flowering-of-a-party.html |archive-date=November 28, 2017 |issn=0362-4331}}
In 2013 she was featured in the documentary Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf's (the title lifted from the caption of a 1990 Victoria Roberts cartoon that appeared in pages of The New Yorker).{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/03/movies/scatter-my-ashes-at-bergdorfs-directed-by-matthew-miele.html?_r=0 |title=The New York Times |website=The New York Times |date=May 3, 2013 |access-date=September 20, 2015 |last1=Webster |first1=Andy }} Variety said in its review of the film that Fargo "effortlessly commands centerstage for long stretches as she vets new designers' collections for kindly 'maybe later' rejection or 'welcome to the family' acceptance."{{cite web |url=https://variety.com/2013/film/reviews/scatter-my-ashes-at-bergdorfs-review-1200454854/ |title=Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf's: Review | Variety |author=Ronnie Scheib |date=May 6, 2013 |publisher=variety.com |access-date=September 20, 2015}}
Bibliography
- {{Cite book |last1=Hoey |first1=David |title=Windows at Bergdorf Goodman |last2=Linda |first2=Fargo |publisher=Assouline |year=2010 |isbn=978-1614280828}}
References
{{reflist}}
{{Bergdorf Goodman|state=collapsed}}
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Category:21st-century American women
Category:American businesspeople in fashion
Category:American textile industry businesspeople
Category:American women business executives
Category:Businesspeople from Milwaukee