When Women Ran Fifth Avenue: Glamour and Power at the Dawn of American Fashion
By Julie Satow
A treat for anyone who yearns to time-travel back to some of those palaces of consumption at the height of their grandeur. But even more revelatory are the stories Satow excavates of the women who presided over three of the greatest and now-vanished New York department stores. – Maureen Corrigan, Fresh Air
The Twentieth-century American department store: a palace of consumption where every wish could be met under one roof – afternoon tea, a stroll through the latest fashions, a wedding (or funeral) planned. Whether in New York or Chicago or on Main Street, USA, men owned the buildings, but inside, women ruled. It was a place where women could stake out a newfound independence.
In this hothouse atmosphere, three women rose to the top. In the 1930’s, Hortense Odlum of Bonwit Teller came to her husband’s department store as a housewife tasked with attracting more shoppers like herself and wound up running the company. Dorothy Shaver of Lord & Taylor championed American designers during World War II – before which U.S. fashions were almost exclusively copies of Parisian originals – and earned more than $1.5 million in today’s dollars, an unheard-of salary for a woman. And in the swinging 1960’s, Geraldine Stutz of Henri Bendel reinvented the look of the modern department store. With a preternatural sense for trends, she inspired a devoted following of ultrachic socialites and celebrities, as well as decades of copycats.
When Women Ran Fifth Avenue is chock full of photographs including one iconic shot of the hole in Bonwit Teller’s Fifth Avenue window after Salvador Dali crashed through the pane in a fit of rage. And the stories! Elizabeth Hawes, one of the first designers to be featured in Lord & Taylor’s American Look campaign began her work in fashion in a Parisian copy house. Copying was illegal in Paris so Hawe’s job was to be a sketcher at Paris fashion shows, a job made more difficult since the only paper available was the program that had to be turned in at the end of the show. Read this book for a delicious stroll down memory lane. This stylish account, rich with personal drama and trade secrets, captures the department store in all its glitz, decadence, and fun and showcases the women who made that beautifully curated world go around.
Julie Satow is an award-winning journalist and the author of The Plaza, a New York Times Editors’ Choice and NPR Favorite Book of 2019. She is a regular contributor to The New York Times.
