MOA Galleria - Macy's at Valley Fair
Macy's at Valley Fair (acrylic on canvas)
Colorful painting by, Mike Carroll, of the 1950s-era Macy's store exterior at the Valley Fair Shopping Center in San Jose, California (you can just barely see the roof-deck's ferris wheel here too!).
More Valley Fair: 1, 2, 3
posted by Keith @ 3/05/2007
5 Comments:
OMG! That color is in, again!
Scott
Retro and swanky Macy's! Who knew they had it in them!!!! I love the fifties atmosphere in this postcard.
I remember shopping at Macy's Valley Fair in my teens and young adult years. At the time, before its more recent incarnation, Macy's was very fashion forward and hip. Across the way from Macy's was J. Magnin, which later became Macy's Men's Store before the whole center was redone. I remember that there was a downstairs area at Valley Fair, down some stairs. There was a cheese shop down there.
Across the side street from Valley Fair was a shopping center (Stevens Creek Plaza?) with The Emporium, and a Stickney's Restaurant. And across from Valley Fair was a Town & Country Village, a shopping center with low red clay roofed buildings and many small shops. There was a tux shop there, and that is where I bought my peach colored bowtie and shirt that I had to wear at the 2nd Floor Restaurant at a tennis club in Los Gatos, where I worked as a busboy.
The painting above was purchased by the Macy's store manager in 1983.
Around that time, I visited the mall manager while trying to sell the painting. They were appearantly celebrating, for the papers were just signed by the new owners to convert it into a mall, which was completed by 1987.
-Mike Carroll Jr.
I grew up in San Jose in the early seventies and moved away in the early eightis to persue a retail career at Bullocks. The Macys Valley Fair store was amazing. I remember it going through an extensive remodel in the late seventies. The main floor was all white and modern and there were these hugh potted ficus tress next to alot of the columns - actually there were potted grape leaf plants all over the store. The men's dept had a small designer shop that carried italian sweaters and Calvin Klein Jeans and a shop that carried Merona Sportswear. The young men's dept was called the tiger shop and had a warehouse look. the Layered look was very big and I would always be amazed at how many layers of clothes the manquines had on. The basement prior to the remodel had a pet shop, after the remodel the basement was renamed the celler and was all brown and dark but all the fixtures were white nested parsons tables. It looked so chic unlike what even the best Macy's looks like today. There was also a shop that feature trendy home decor and had items like fabrics that could be stretched on to frames for wall decor. There was plastic furniture in brite colors and really cool modern stuff for the home. The second floor had the bedding dept that always had elaborate displays with the latest bedding pattern from YSL and Calvin Klein. They looked more like entire room settings. The juniors dept was named JRs and had cut out wood branches comming out of the columns. The peasant look and Gunne Sax brand were huge and I remmber getting off the escaltor and being bombared with an explosion of color and patterns.
I usually visited the store once a week just to see what was new. Thinking back now, the store would be retro cool today. I visited the Valley Fair store after the store and Mall remodel in the late 80's and was sad to see all the uniqueness gone. It is a huge and super busy mall now contected with what was the old Emporium Stevens Creek Plaza. The scale of the mall seems so big. It all was open air and used to be small with lots of plantings. Macys was at its height then. It was the first store that you started at when you went shopping. Then you would go to Bullocks at Valco Shopping Center in Cupertino. It featured and I Magnin - great mens dept, a polo store (independent Ralph Lauren store) and a Judys that had a Gear for Guys dept.
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