An awesome day in New York

The sun was out today and we were running early for our visit to Bergdorf Goodman (thanks to an uncrowded subway) so we started with a quick photo stop in Central Park.  As the NY weather has been quite mild there was no snow on the ground, however the ponds still had a thin covering of ice on them.
We then wandered back to Bergdorf Goodman for our visit with the very distinguished and amenable David, the training and development manager, who showed us arond the store before it opened for the day.  We started off in one of the Chanel boutiques before moving up to shoes and some of the other European designer boutiques, before we were given a VERY special treat - we were invited to sit in on a private showing of Michael Kors' new Spring 2010 collection by the designer himself to the Bergdorf Goodman staff.  This involved four models and two assistants showing off each piece of the new collection while the designer discussed the features and offered some selling tips.  The clothes were just beautiful and the session provided a glimpse into how the other half lives, as indeed  the whole store did. 
It is clear that Bergdorf Goodman strongly believes in building long-term relationships with its customers rather than taking out full page advertisements in the newspaper.  It has also put a great deal of effort into making the store a destination in itself, offering fittings and furniture which its upper crust clientele are at home with, and preserving as many features of the 1920s building as feasibly possible, while modernising it with energy-efficient heating and cooling systems.
Following the B-G visit, we wandered down Fifth Avenue for a spot of shopping before I met Tad for lunch, an old friend from Monash undergrad days.  He took me to the Oyster Bar, a massive barn of a place at Grand Central Station, with several sections including what looked like an authentic saloon bar!  We had a lovely catch up over a long leisurely lunch which just about took me through to beer o'clock, when I caught up with another old friend, Gerry from school, who is now over here working for MTV.  We met at Havana Central at Times Square and had another great catch up.