Bergdorf Goodman turns 125 with more than 100 designer collaborations across 850 exclusive styles

Bergdorf Goodman is marking its 125th anniversary with a season-long celebration built on what the store has always sold: designer exclusives, elaborate window displays and in-store spectacle. The commemoration opened Wednesday night with a party at the Fifth Avenue store and runs through the fall, touching every part of the retailer's business.

What the celebration includes

Bergdorf's has partnered with more than 100 brands on exclusive collections and special products spanning more than 850 styles. Akris contributed evening-focused archive revivals, Schiaparelli supplied rare collectors' pieces, and Azzedine Alaia's 1982 Bergdorf Goodman show is represented within the assortment marking the anniversary.

Roger Vivier and Michael Kors produced capsule collections for the occasion. Brunello Cucinelli, Diotima, Thom Browne, Tom Ford and Zankov are also participating, according to the store, giving the anniversary range a spread across ready-to-wear, footwear and accessories from more than 100 partner labels.

The Fifth Avenue windows, spanning both the women's and men's stores, are dressed with historical imagery and fall fashion set against Bergdorf's signature lavender color. "Very Bergdorf," a book published this fall by Assouline with an introduction by Wendy Goodman, chronicles the retailer's history and creative output.

Filmed interviews accompany the retail rollout, featuring stylist Kate Young, actress Candice Bergen, Proenza Schouler creative director Rachel Scott and Michael Kors, whose careers have intersected with the store across decades. Kors first sold a collection to Bergdorf's in 1981 after its then fashion director, Dawn Mello, gave him her card.

What designers said about the store

Tracy Margolies, Bergdorf Goodman's president, said the anniversary is being brought to life through exclusive products, collaborations, windows and digital storytelling, adding that the goal is to preserve what clients have loved while giving them new reasons to engage. Linda Fargo, senior vice president of the fashion office, credited brand partners with interpreting the milestone through their own distinct points of view.

Schiaparelli creative director Daniel Roseberry called Bergdorf's the only place outside Paris where his collections could be found for his first four years at the house. Manolo Blahnik recalled asking a taxi driver to stop in the 1970s the first time he saw the store's windows, saying they left a lasting impression on him.

Akris creative director Albert Kriemler said he first dreamed of seeing his label in Bergdorf's windows after a formative week in New York in 1979, a dream Dawn Mello made real in 1988. Christopher John Rogers said the retailer picked up his label during its second season at retail and has supported it since.

How the store built its history

French tailor Herman Bergdorf launched the store on Fifth Avenue at 19th Street in 1901, and it was renamed Bergdorf Goodman that year after apprentice Edwin Goodman bought part ownership. Goodman later bought Bergdorf out in 1914 and moved the operation to Midtown Manhattan near Rockefeller Center.

Goodman became the first couturier to introduce French and American ready-to-wear, and in 1928 he erected the current Beaux-Arts building on Fifth Avenue between 57th and 58th streets, previously the site of Cornelius Vanderbilt II's family home. His son Andrew took over as president in 1951 and became chairman after his father's death in 1953.

Ownership has shifted repeatedly since. Carter Hawley Hale Stores bought the business in 1972, and in 1987 spun off Bergdorf's and Neiman's into the Neiman Marcus Group to avoid a takeover, with General Cinema Corp. as majority stakeholder. Ira Neimark and Dawn Mello had by then begun transforming Bergdorf's into one of the world's most luxurious retail destinations.

Neiman Marcus Group changed hands again in 2005, when it was sold entirely to private equity firms TPG Capital and Warburg Pincus, and again in 2013, when Ares Management and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board bought the group.

Bergdorf's was dragged down by its parent's 2019 bankruptcy and emerged in 2020 with senior lenders PIMCO, Davidson Kempner Capital Management and Sixth Street Partners as new owners.

Hudson's Bay Co., owner of Saks Fifth Avenue, bought Neiman Marcus Group in 2024 and formed Saks Global the following year. Saks Global filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2026 but emerged five months later with a healthier balance sheet under a new name, Exemplar Luxury Group, which now includes Bergdorf Goodman, Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus.

Why the milestone matters now

The 125th arrives just months after that restructuring, giving Bergdorf's an anniversary built around continuity at a moment when its ownership history has been anything but stable. Marc Jacobs summed up the store's standing among designers simply: having clothes sold at Bergdorf Goodman has long been, in his words, the ultimate goal.

We have covered other anniversary moments built on archives and exclusives, including Rolex's mark of 100 years of the Oyster case and Aardman's 50th anniversary puppet auction, and Bergdorf's approach follows a similar pattern of pairing heritage storytelling with limited product. Our coverage of style tracks how legacy retailers use milestones to court both new and longtime shoppers.

No end date has been given for the anniversary program, which the store says runs through the fall season and touches every part of the business that reaches shoppers, from windows and digital storytelling to in-store experiences and the designer collaborations themselves.