Catch Preview of Neiman Marcus' Newest Store

The media came Wednesday morning to poke around the jewelry section and the handbag section and the men's store and the cafe — all of the new Neiman Marcus store was a showcase.

It's not immediately known if Lamorindans will display a similar interest.

Neiman's doors open to the public at 10 a.m. Friday. General Manager Jamie Broadhurst hinted, during the media tour, that there would be a surprise for the shoppers Friday morning as well. Broadway Plaza is apparently delighted to play host to the new arrival. The plaza, starting an hour before the Neiman Marcus opening, will have live music from St. Gabriel's Celestial Brass Band, breakfast bites and coffee. The whole day is shaping up as a celebration — Broadway Plaza also invites the public to rock out with the group Gravy Boat in the Broadway Plaza Promenade, starting at 7 p.m.

And, between then and now, Neiman Marcus hosts at the store for four East Bay charities — Diablo Regional Arts Association, Monument Crisis Center, Junior League of Oakland - East Bay, and the Taylor Family Foundation — on Thursday evening. The gala has been sold out for a week with more than 800 tickets, Broadhurst said.

Butterflies over the escalator

One highlight of this new Neiman Marcus, and about a dozen other new ones around the country in recent years, is a butterfly mobile in the atrium over the escalators, with 350 strands of butterflies. The media tour was led in part by the artist of the butterfly mobile, Ignaz Gorischek, vice president of store development for Neiman Marcus.

The store is up up upscale. A couple samples: A Loro Piano spring women's jacket in sherbet green with a tag for $3,595. That frightened me a little so I went back down the escalator to men's wear and found a beige Billy Reid sweater for $295.

The store is not scented but the managers have been "talking and looking" into it, said Gorischek.

in every nook and cranny, much of it by Bay Area artists. "All the art is properly lit and properly tagged," said Gorischek. "We never put any items in front of it."

On two faces of the building exterior are large kinetic pieces of art, literally blowing in the wind. The artist, Ned Kahn of Sebastopol, Sonoma County, created wind-animated vertical fins fabricated out of brushed aluminum with a clear-anodized finish to reflect colors from the sky.

The store is designed with wide aisles. "People need the proper distance to stand back and view the product well," said Gorischek.

It's the East Bay's first Neiman Marcus. The store hopes to draw some curious regular customers from its existing outlets in San Francisco and Palo Alto.