How’d She Do It? Linda Fargo

You may not have heard the name Linda Fargo before, but you’ve certainly heard of Bergdorf Goodman! Bergdorf Goodman is a high-end department store located in Manhattan, NY on Fifth Avenue. Although Bergdorf Goodman only has 2 storefronts (across the street from each other no less), the company is a subsidiary of Neiman Marcus. Getting back to the topic at hand, today we are here to tell the story of Linda Fargo. Linda Fargo is the Women’s Fashion Director at Bergdorf Goodman. Alongside Bruce Pask, the Men’s Fashion Director, Linda and Bruce run the show! The CGS Team is sharing how Linda Fargo became the company’s fashion power house.

Fashionistas across the world would love to live a day in Linda’s shoes! As the fashion director, she oversees the store design, displays, and, most importantly, the fashion. She spots trends before they become trends, approves designers who wish to sell at Bergdorf, and has the final approval of any piece of fashion that goes on the store’s display, regardless of how hot the designer fashion may be! As some may assume she landed the one of the most glamorous jobs in fashion in a blink of an eye, the truth is it took time and patience to get Linda where she is now.

Linda grow up in the suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and had an eye for fashion at a very young age. In an interview for Time magazine, Linda admitted: “I was a huge costume-box kid, always dressing everyone else and arranging the roles and scenes and playing it out once we put costumes on. I remember stiletto sandals with a rhinestone buckle.

They were the big glamour piece.” After graduating with a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts degree from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Linda went to New York City and got a job as a window dresser at the Macy’s store on 34^th Street. Just over a decade later, Linda became the visual director of the store (which is over 1 million square feet). She eventually moved on to visual merchandising for I. Magnin and Gap.

After gaining so much experience from her previous roles, Linda was hired to do the visuals at Bergdorf Goodman in 1996. Since then, she has been promoted twice and now runs the women’s fashion side of the company. Whether she’s sitting front row during fashion week, or chatting with upcoming designers, Linda is always keeping an eye on fashion she loves. Everything sold at Bergdorf Goodman passed through her eyes prior to being displayed.

With 20 plus years under her belt in the fashion world, some can say Linda has developed irreplaceable wisdom. She takes risks that displays creativity, and is comfortable going outside the norm. Qualities similar to these are hard to find in an industry that can easily get caught up in a fad. We say, go girl! Linda made things happen for her. She went from a Midwest girl to Big Apple fashionista, and we couldn’t be more inspired!

Have you visited the Bergdorf Goodman store in NYC? What do you think of Linda’s career story? Leave a comment below to share your thoughts with the group!

-The CGS Team