Christmas window displays in Paris: The good, the bad, and the hilariously absurd

I’m a newbie to this whole Christmas window display thing.

See where I’m from, our idea of a Christmas display is fake snow in the window of the Bath & Body Works in our mid-sized mall that has fake wreaths and disproportionately large ornaments hanging from the ceilings.

Man, have I been missing out.

Paris knows how to take a Christmas display seriously. Famous design houses like Dior and Vuitton — and of course even animation house Disney — get in on the action. Being the Christmas fan that I am, once again I brought out the big camera and went around documenting as many as I could.

BHV

I’ll start off with a simple one: the windows at BHV, a well-known department store next to Hotel de Ville. This year their windows are the work of French fashion designer Alexis Mabille and all feature mannequins with disconnected, spherical heads.

Disney 

Disney have currently bogarted the entrance to Galeries Lafayette with a large replica of Cinderella’s golden carriage. It’s created a slight traffic jam at the main entrance as everyone stops to gawk and take photos, but I mean, it’s Cinderella. I can’t get annoyed when “A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes” is playing on repeat.

Dior at Printemps

Now we’re getting to the good stuff. Much like Macy’s or Bloomingdales in NYC, the displays at Printemps are highly anticipated.

This year the 11 windows were dressed by Dior, and while I was a bit iffy on their concepts — the windows were a mix of dreamy and bizarre, realistic and fantastical — the design house did impress me solely due to their attention to every little miniature doll-sized detail.

Dior played on the theme of “Parisian Inspirations” — each window featured iconic landmarks of the city, with miniature dolls interacting inside: ice skating at the Eiffel Tower, riding a merry-go-round at a carnival in the Tuileries, sailing above the iconic Parisian rooftops in hot air balloons.

Apparently each of the 74 poupettes were hand-crafted at Dior’s Haute Couture workshop in Paris and each wears an actual replica of a Dior design, down to the bags and shoes. (Here’s a nice short video of the windows as they were unveiled by Marion Cotillard last month.)

Above: An overview of two of the Dior windows.

Below: Different scenes from the hot air balloon window — just to show how much detail goes into each display.

Now, that said…

I have to admit: I found these windows hilarious.

I understand that making marionettes — especially when your boss is Dior — cannot be an easy task.

But seriously. Some of the marionette’s expressions and jerky puppeteering were just too funny.

Past the miniature dolls are some larger window displays featuring some of Dior’s latest haute couture designs. (I’m just telling you what I found on the internet. I have no idea what haute couture means.)

All I know is, the reds and golds were stunning.

If you need to take a window display break, pop into Printemps to thaw out. Dior has a pop-up shop on the first floor, complete with sunglasses that cost more than my monthly salary and very sharp floor staff:

Louis Vuitton at Galeries Lafayette

Now Louis, he’s got the good stuff. His displays are downright absurd; nowhere near the realm of normal.

First, there’s a masquerade ball of exotic animals — apparently the animals are a nod to the designer’s relationship with travel, while the ball is for Galeries Lafayette’s 100th anniversary (hence the Disney princesses tie-in as well). Where else could you find a lion dancing with a flamingo, a giraffe with an eagle, or my favorite, a peacock being dipped by an elephant?

After the ball, the windows of Galeries Lafayette are all lined with more exotic animals. Like these flamingos, who obviously fell in love over their compatible taste in hats and are now completely lost in each other:

And then, a large dancing polar bear.

Not to be outdone, the panda bear break dances in circles, much to the delight of the cheerleaders dancing on luggage around him.

But my absolute favorite is this window:

…and this one. Because hey — if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.

What’s your favorite Christmas display, past or present? Do you prefer them wistfully dreamy or laugh-out-loud absurd?