Bloomingdale's

Bloomingdale’s is recorded as both a destination in Andy Warhol’s daily routine and the setting for an unexpected social encounter. A planned trip to beat the crowds became a Christmas-season shopping visit where he bought business gifts and met Jean Kennedy Smith.

A Holiday Shopping Stop

On November 30, 1976, Warhol wanted to keep his morning conversation brief so he could get to Bloomingdale’s before it became crowded. In the following day’s diary entry, he recounted going there in the Christmas spirit to buy business gifts; the account notes a cab fare of $8. The two entries together show the visit moving from an anticipated errand to a completed stop in his holiday preparations.

An Encounter in the Men’s Department

At Bloomingdale’s, Warhol ran into Jean Kennedy Smith in the men’s shirt department. They had the same salesgirl, a small coincidence that places the meeting within the ordinary mechanics of shopping rather than at a formal social gathering. The department-store encounter briefly brought Warhol’s gift buying and public social world into the same everyday scene.