Halloween in NY: Bleecker Street

Halloween is the only time of the year that I actually pay attention to store window displays, and I’m always impressed by the offerings on Bleecker Street in the West Village. I took a bike ride down Bleecker today to take some pictures (I’m convinced there’s some sort of secret neighborhood association that spreads extra leaves on the ground to make the West Village feel extra-autumny):

The Ralph Lauren stores (that’s right, stores – there are four of them within a block of each other) usually take their Halloween windows very seriously (as I’ve noted in the past), though I think this year’s are a mixed bag. First up is the Ralph Lauren store at 390 Bleecker (which I believe is their “Double-L-R” store, whatever that means).

In the window are a pair of skeletons dressed to go ice-fishing, or maybe hunting. I dig that the skeletons have their pants-legs rolled up to expose bones. My favorite of the four stores.

Less than a block away is the Ralph Lauren kids store.

I like the pumpkin-headed kids flying around on broomsticks (though I think, if they were feeling especially subversive, those kids in front could be holding their own pumpkin heads in their hands, or standing on them or something):

Across the street is the Ralph Lauren women’s store:

There’s something going on here, but I’m not exactly sure what it is. Weird manequins, creepy dolls, cobwebs everywhere…Maybe a Great Expectations/ Mrs. Havisham thing? It’s unclear.

I like the broken teacup on the table with the mouse in it…

The other window has an antique stroller and a bird cage. Overall, I think this needed a more specific theme to tie it all together other than general weirdness.

Finally, there’s the Ralph Lauren 2: Electric Boogaloo store next door:

The theme here seems to be something like a meat locker after a mannequin slash-fest. I like that the arms and legs are all hanging on hooks, the hands covering the ground, and the one in the bag…

…and how the neighboring window has shelves of decapitated mannequin heads…But this one takes a bit of imagination and I think falls short. A chainsaw or a butcher’s knife in the hands of the standing mannequins could have  made a big difference.

I was really blown away by the Marc Jacobs store at 385 Bleecker, in part that people were actually waiting in the rain to go in (note the poor kids, helpless against their parents whims)…

…but more to the point, the floor-to-ceiling bone wall completely covering the windows is very cool.

Inspired by Paris’ catacombs?

Lots of great detail:

Down at Sixth Avenue, American Apparel shows you that their clothes can easily be used for the superhero in need:

Last and definitely least, the season FAIL award goes to Mulberry at 387 Bleecker…

…for already having Christmas decorations in the window.

Can we at least wait til the jack-o-lantern candles blow out?

-SCOUT