A PLAY CHAIR CONQUERS TIMES SQUARE

Times Square at night is New York in overdrive. The city may be bustling, but nowhere bustles more than here. The city may pulse with light, but nowhere do the lights flash brighter, harder, in more colors and from more directions than in Times Square. Indeed, no other place in New York — and quite possibly in the world — boasts zoning ordinances that actually require buildings to display flashing signs. 

Stacked one of above the other, bending, waving, beaming out from just about every surface but the pavement itself, the lighted signs and sprawling, scrawling screens of Times Square are more than just a dizzying celebration of American pop culture and commerce. They’re the symbol of this storied neighborhood’s spectacular resurgence after decades of post-War decay. 

It’s hard to believe that, just 20 years ago, the five-block intersection of Broadway and Seventh Avenue was a no-man’s land of porn shops, drug dealers, violent crime and dilapidated landmarks. Tonight, it’s the site of a DEDON photo shoot with supermodel Iris Strubegger. Instead of muggers, we’re surrounded by tourists from around the world, their cameras flashing almost as furiously as ours. 

Though she was born and raised in the countryside outside of Salzburg, Austria, and says she’s still a nature girl at heart, Iris is a New York story as well. After all, it was here, during a three-month exchange program, that she was first discovered — or “scouted”, as they say in the fashion industry. In no time at all, she was pounding the runway for Calvin Klein and posing for Armani Exchange.

After a four-year hiatus for studies (in digital television!) back in Austria, Iris returned to New York in 2007 and swiftly became one of the most successful models on the planet. Indeed, Vogue Paris recently ranked her among the top 30 models of the 2000s. Humble, kind and cool, Iris takes it all in stride. And speaking of striding, she ends the Times Square shoot with a high-heeled stroll down Broadway, catwalk style, a PLAY chair in her hands, while our photographer, Rainer Hosch, snaps away. 

The tourists love this unexpected show, of course. And the New Yorkers? It’s easy to spot them — they’re the ones going about their business, pretending not to pay attention. They’ve seen it all before, their straight-ahead stares seem to say. But I catch plenty of them casting discreet, sidelong glances on our way. And who can blame them?   It’s not every day — not even in New York — that you see one of the world’s biggest (and tallest) models striding down the street in a transparent raincoat, a Philippe Starck-designed PLAY with DEDON chair slung over her shoulder.