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if you were santa claus, and you could give a gift to every person in the world, what would that gift be?if i was santa, i would give everyone a painting from the east harlem school. every year we do this art program, in every barney's store. we invite the children to tie their art in with our themes. last year we did andy warhol; this year we gave them the theme of mother earth. these are middle school kids, and they all did their portrait of mother earth, and they're fantastic. children's art is always better than adult's art, because it's never phony, and it's always real, and it's always great. the money all goes to the east harlem school, 100%, we don't keep any of it.what would andy warhol say about green?i don't know, but he was very much a zeitgeist-surfing kind of dude, so somehow or other he would have connected with it. i could see him doing portraits of green heroes, because he was all about doing portraits of famous people and then forcing them to buy it. that was his whole thingare you going to sell the portraits in the window to al gore, or bette midler?we should, shouldn't we, that's a good idea.here's a random question: have you ever used a compost toilet?of course! i’m very green, honey.this sign says, 'we are celebrating this holiday by supporting american forests, with a commitment to plant 25,000 trees.'yes, that's barney's specific contribution, because people are going to look at these windows and say, 'oh, that's nice, but what are they doing.'window dressing seems difficult….it wasn't that difficult. it's not an exacting thing. if something doesn't look quite right you can just stick on a few sequins, it's a very forgiving form of expression. the thing about our windows is, they're crafty, they're funky, people like them because they relate to them. they see them and they go, 'well, i could do that,' and they could!do you have an eco-sin?yeah, i've used all the seventh generation products, and the shaklee products, at home for a long time, but once in a while if the pots are really greasy, you just have to grab the old stuff and do it, because it just isn't going to come off. i do like to use a lot of kleenex. if i had a child, i'm not sure i could deal with cloth diapers. i've always been into recycling, i was always a bit of a hippie. to me, it's not new.in your book, confessions of a window dresser, you mention that windows are about creating a sense of desire. what kind of desire were you hoping to evoke in the passersby with these eco-friendly windows?i hope that people will be intrigued and amused, and will think barney's is a very interesting place. this is important, because the green movement can get very earnest, very serious, and i wouldn't want the windows to come off as preachy. we've made sure that they are humorous. creating preachy green windows wouldn't have worked. it would have seemed a bit sanctimonious. i want people to walk away feeling amused and thinking, 'oh, that's nifty,' carrying millions of barney's shopping bags full of lanvin handbags and louis vuitton shoes.how many windows are there?in barney's across the country, there are hundreds of windows, but here on madison avenue in new york city, we have four main windows. we also have windows in beverly hills, san francisco, dallas, and chicago, which basically are different permutations and confections of the same ideas here. all of the stores have green shopping bags made of recyclable materials; they say, 'have a green holiday.'how does one go about even starting to create green windows?because the green movement is a relatively new movement, it doesn't have a lot of existing iconic visuals, other than polar bears drowning, al gore, blah blah blah, so we had to invent them. what i did was take some traditional holiday iconography and give it a green twist. here are the twelve green days of christmas. it's 'twelve tons of tofu, eleven solar panels,' all the way through to 'two vegan chefs and a prius in a pear tree.' the song is on the back of our holiday catalogue. the minute we put this in the window, we had people outside singing along.so you've been thinking about green for awhile then.about a year and a half.did you use led lights?yes. we've been as eco as we can. for example, the tree is all sustainable wood. i love that you're trying to bust me, though. this is some christiane amanpour, hard-hitting journalism. i like it.are these paintings in the windows of celebrities?yes, these are the heroes of green. the tree is covered in people's names, everyone from prince charles to al gore to darryl hannah. the people who have portraits are more iconic, people like bono, brad pitt, darryl hannah, and alice waters. we made a long list of all the celebrities that were affiliated with the green movement. people do great stuff, but maybe people don't know what they look like, like environmentalist wangari maathai, who won the nobel prize. she is iconic. there are some great people who've done great stuff, but if no one knows what they look like, there's no point in doing a portrait of them, but you can put their name in there.

if you were santa claus, and you could give a gift to every person in the world, what would that gift be?if i was santa, i would give everyone a painting from the east harlem school. every year we do this art program, in every barney's store. we invite the children to tie their art in with our themes. last year we did andy warhol; this year we gave them the theme of mother earth. these are middle school kids, and they all did their portrait of mother earth, and they're fantastic. children's art is always better than adult's art, because it's never phony, and it's always real, and it's always great. the money all goes to the east harlem school, 100%, we don't keep any of it.what would andy warhol say about green?i don't know, but he was very much a zeitgeist-surfing kind of dude, so somehow or other he would have connected with it. i could see him doing portraits of green heroes, because he was all about doing portraits of famous people and then forcing them to buy it. that was his whole thingare you going to sell the portraits in the window to al gore, or bette midler?we should, shouldn't we, that's a good idea.here's a random question: have you ever used a compost toilet?of course! i’m very green, honey.this sign says, 'we are celebrating this holiday by supporting american forests, with a commitment to plant 25,000 trees.'yes, that's barney's specific contribution, because people are going to look at these windows and say, 'oh, that's nice, but what are they doing.'window dressing seems difficult….it wasn't that difficult. it's not an exacting thing. if something doesn't look quite right you can just stick on a few sequins, it's a very forgiving form of expression. the thing about our windows is, they're crafty, they're funky, people like them because they relate to them. they see them and they go, 'well, i could do that,' and they could!do you have an eco-sin?yeah, i've used all the seventh generation products, and the shaklee products, at home for a long time, but once in a while if the pots are really greasy, you just have to grab the old stuff and do it, because it just isn't going to come off. i do like to use a lot of kleenex. if i had a child, i'm not sure i could deal with cloth diapers. i've always been into recycling, i was always a bit of a hippie. to me, it's not new.in your book, confessions of a window dresser, you mention that windows are about creating a sense of desire. what kind of desire were you hoping to evoke in the passersby with these eco-friendly windows?i hope that people will be intrigued and amused, and will think barney's is a very interesting place. this is important, because the green movement can get very earnest, very serious, and i wouldn't want the windows to come off as preachy. we've made sure that they are humorous. creating preachy green windows wouldn't have worked. it would have seemed a bit sanctimonious. i want people to walk away feeling amused and thinking, 'oh, that's nifty,' carrying millions of barney's shopping bags full of lanvin handbags and louis vuitton shoes.how many windows are there?in barney's across the country, there are hundreds of windows, but here on madison avenue in new york city, we have four main windows. we also have windows in beverly hills, san francisco, dallas, and chicago, which basically are different permutations and confections of the same ideas here. all of the stores have green shopping bags made of recyclable materials; they say, 'have a green holiday.'how does one go about even starting to create green windows?because the green movement is a relatively new movement, it doesn't have a lot of existing iconic visuals, other than polar bears drowning, al gore, blah blah blah, so we had to invent them. what i did was take some traditional holiday iconography and give it a green twist. here are the twelve green days of christmas. it's 'twelve tons of tofu, eleven solar panels,' all the way through to 'two vegan chefs and a prius in a pear tree.' the song is on the back of our holiday catalogue. the minute we put this in the window, we had people outside singing along.so you've been thinking about green for awhile then.about a year and a half.did you use led lights?yes. we've been as eco as we can. for example, the tree is all sustainable wood. i love that you're trying to bust me, though. this is some christiane amanpour, hard-hitting journalism. i like it.are these paintings in the windows of celebrities?yes, these are the heroes of green. the tree is covered in people's names, everyone from prince charles to al gore to darryl hannah. the people who have portraits are more iconic, people like bono, brad pitt, darryl hannah, and alice waters. we made a long list of all the celebrities that were affiliated with the green movement. people do great stuff, but maybe people don't know what they look like, like environmentalist wangari maathai, who won the nobel prize. she is iconic. there are some great people who've done great stuff, but if no one knows what they look like, there's no point in doing a portrait of them, but you can put their name in there.