ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes Bonwit Teller's Surrealist windows in the winter of 1936, both in the context of evolving window display techniques and in that of the avant-garde visual concepts they demonstrated. It then examines the difficulty of Dalí's second collaboration with Bonwit Teller, the critical fallout from that failure, and MoMA's institutional endorsement of window display as an artistic aspect of modern life. The chapter argues that the Surrealist window advanced the interests of art and fashion, the museum and the marketplace, fortifying their shared pursuit of fantastic display. Though window display was an acknowledged mass entertainment, the extra attention that the Surrealist windows garnered was noted in newspapers. According to store management, the Surrealist windows "not only attracted large crowds of passers-by, but also sold far more of the dresses shown than was the case with a more usual form of display".
