Iconic Harper’s Bazaar covers light up Empire State Building for magazine’s 150th anniversary

On Wednesday night, Harper’s Bazaar magazine celebrated its 150th anniversary in New York City by projecting its most iconic covers and shoots on the Empire State Building. Photos from Audrey Hepburn’s vintage spread to Rihanna’s recent Amelia Earhart tribute – plus Reese Witherspoon’s February 2016 cover – covered the entire Northern side wall of the famous landmark. The show, led by editor-in-chief Glenda Bailey, ran from 8:30 p.m. to midnight and was streamed live online.

NYDailyNews.com / HarpersBazaar.com

A Fashion Show on the Empire State Building

On a typical New York night, you can see the Empire State Building lit up in color to honor a special occasion — green for Earth Day, for example, or red and blue for a Chicago Cubs World Series victory. But the building will look decidedly more extravagant on Wednesday, when Harper’s Bazaar will project 150 cover images — including of Audrey Hepburn, Reese Witherspoon and Gwyneth Paltrow — onto the building’s north facade to celebrate the magazine’s 150th anniversary.

The images were chosen from across the magazine’s history: There will be works from Andy Warhol and Richard Avedon, and images of Lauren Bacall and Kate Moss. The projections will be 500 feet tall and 186 feet wide and cover 42 floors of the building; they will run intermittently from 8:30 p.m. to midnight.

“What I really want is to allow New Yorkers to enjoy the greatest fashion show in the world,” Glenda Bailey, editor in chief of Harper’s Bazaar, said in an interview. “It will be the greatest light show that has ever been.”

The Empire State Building installed an LED lighting system that could generate 16 million colors in 2012, and has since hosted a few of these high-definition projects, including photos of endangered wildlife and artwork from the Whitney Museum.

Planning for the project began two years ago, and needed approval from the building and from New York City. Julie Menin, the city’s commissioner of media and entertainment, wrote in a statement that the magazine “has played a seminal role in nurturing the careers of its hometown’s creative community, including Truman Capote, Andy Warhol, James Baldwin, Richard Avedon, Cindy Sherman and so many more.”

The endeavor is an initiative of Harper’s Bazaar and Tiffany & Co. Harper’s declined to say how much it will cost. “It’s wildly expensive but it will be worth every penny,” Ms. Bailey said. (The animal projections from 2015 cost more than $1 million.) For those unable to attend in person, the projections will be streamed live from Harper’s Bazaar’s Facebook page.

NYTimes.com