"Fashion is a kind of Kabuki,” says Bergdorf Goodman’s women’s fashion director, Linda Fargo. For 11 years, Fargo has been responsible for stocking the New York department store’s nine floors. Her personal style, honed over years in fashion’s front row, is a magpie mix of straight-off-the-runway statement and Auntie Mame eccentric, tempered with staples like the perfect white shirt or LBD. “I definitely err on the side of being overdressed,” she says.
Now Fargo is letting everyone in on her style ethos with Linda’s at Bergdorf Goodman, a new in-store boutique devoted to her latest obsessions. “It’s almost my fantasy closet,” she says. A closet that includes vintage Lacroix baubles and Moroccan babouche slippers—the kinds of things that Fargo loves but don’t always have a place within Bergdorf’s. The shop has been gilded with Fargo’s touch: custom de Gournay wallpaper, a hostess greeting guests with Fargo’s favorite tea, fitting rooms embellished with fashion-show invites. The space will change four times a year, and the offerings will be refreshed as Fargo discovers them—say, a canary yellow bugle-beaded flapper dress by Naeem Khan or baby blue Gucci pumps topped with rhinestone cherries. Also making an appearance: Fargo’s equally stylish companion, photographer Björn Wallander. Though Wallander typically favors more understated fare (Thom Browne blazers, Saint Laurent perfecto jackets), since meeting Linda he’s embraced his inner dandy. He even occasionally shops Fargo’s closet— taking a scarf or sunglasses to punctuate the jeans and T-shirts of his work uniform. “It’s a little hard to keep up with Linda,” he says.
