For exhibit #347 that an obsession with food has moved into the mainstream, we present the Barney’s Christmas windows, revealed Tuesday in the theme of “Have a Foodie Holiday,” inspired by The Food Network stars, the likenesses of many of which will soon be seen behind the windows (with titles like “Bad Boys of Food,” according to WWD earlier this fall). Barney’s entire Christmas catalog, in fact, follows the theme — “we love butter just as much as Paula … we dig organic activists like Jamie and Alice” — and was shot in the Iron Chef America studios in Chelsea Market. The connection is not just the produce-laden pics but that this year Barney’s will be donating to the Food Bank. This is also food for thought, one might add, about the eternal debate on the word “foodie” and to whom it applies to. (The subject of our very first Edible radio show, as a matter of fact.) And if you do make the trip to windowshop — windowsnack? — remember you can eat at Barney’s, too, and appropriately to their holiday theme. The chef at Fred’s, which is in our Edible Restaurant Guide, is the Greenmarket-friendly Mark Strausman. So take that, all those that say fashion is without substance (or sustenance).
