Last week when I was walking to work with my husband, I noticed that there were quilts in the windows at Macy’s at Herald’s Square in NYC. My head almost twisted right off of my neck. Of course, when Jeremy is walking to work, he is on a mission from god. He doesn’t slow down for quilts, and I tag along in his wake, so I didn’t stop either.
This week I went in on a later train, so I was alone. You know what that means!
In case you can’t tell, this is a cardboard Kardashian, seated on a quilt, in her underpants. I think they are all vintage quilts.
I think the mannequin torso is more appealing as a model.
This one is definitely vintage.
More giant cardboard Kardashians. Pfft. I couldn’t see all of the quilts.
I don’t think all of these are vintage – they looked like a computerized pantograph to me, although maybe hand guided. Definitely machine quilted, though.
Even the ropes keeping people off of the quilts was a quilt. And the sand bags holding up the models was also quilts.
I did make a small attempt to find them in the rest of the store, but I was dragging my wheelie bag and a heavy tote bag. The one employee I asked did not have any interest in quilts – she was more interested in the Kardashians or giving me a makeover. We had a failure to communicate. At that point, I left the store and went to work.
Research on the train ride home did not yield any info on the quilts in this ad campaign. There was a lot of speculation on one of the girls being pregnant, wow. How amazing – a pregnant woman. Been there, done that. Good luck to her. Where did the damn quilts come from?!! More importantly, where are they going after the campaign is over?
I did find an interesting article at GQ Style that discusses Calvin Klein and quilts at fashion week last year. Apparently Raf Simons is a big deal at Calvin Klein and is really into quilts. He used them in his clothing line. I’ll be trekking uptown to visit the Calvin Klein flagship store and explore the quilts on display there. Unfortunately, it is not really walking distance from Gotham Quilts. Either I’ll have to figure out the subway or squirrel away enough cash to pay a cab without my husband busting me for wasting money.
It is very exciting to find quilts being used as props around the city. So many people seem to think that quilting is an old fashioned activity, and boring. Quilts themselves are often not considered to be stylish, but here is a big ad campaign with the Kardashians rolling around in old fashioned quilts in their undies. It’s like having two worlds colliding.
If you are really into red and white quilts, check out Linda Adams‘ feed on Instagram. She goes by “turquoise_fairy”, and her red and white quilts are amazing.
Smiling as I’m reading this, and your conversation with the employee had me giggling. Seriously, though, where did they come from? Do they know how to care for the quilts (especially the vintage one — is it sitting in the sun, or are the windows protective, etc.). I could care less about the undies and who’s in them. I want the details on the quilts! Haha.
I would guess no and no. The quilts on the big display had plenty of soil on them. I have a possible source of more information. Cross your fingers – I’ll share info as soon as I find it.
I guess I find the whole thing strange, beautiful quilts and ladies in their undies. Definitely the crossing of paths.Hope you can find more about it.
This is cool and quite funny at the same time. “No, I don’t care about the undies, let me peek at the back of that quilt. C’mon just the corner! I swear I am not pestering the cardboard models. “.
I too was intrigued by the quilts, the Ks – not so much.
Why is it so MANY people’s heads are filled with those K-girls fluff and not valuable stuff? Like quilts!! I noticed the quilt ropes immediately! Love this idea, yay Macy’s! Will be watching to see what you discover about them…maybe they’re making a subtle nod to their friends just a little to the north?! 🙂