When Women Ran Fifth Avenue
by: Julie Satow
June 4, 2024 Doubleday
320 pages
It has been brought to my attention that I write characters with extensive wardrobes. Apparently, I’m a little bit of a fashionista and I perceive clothes easier than I do faces and facial expressions. Which is kind of funny, because as a kid I hated fashion and shopping. Probably because my school uniform and modesty code was forcing me into clothes that were clearly not intended for my body type. I guess that’s what happens when you let a man dictate what women should wear. I’m in charge of my own clothes now and the results, while hopefully still modest, no longer make me feel ugly or misshapen. Because my body is my own and it shouldn’t have to be clothed with the male gaze in mind. I love to shop now! And I loved learning how some legendary department stores had similar transformations when taken over by women, as detailed in Julie Satow’s When Women Ran Fifth Avenue.
Most of the women featured in the book are in fact not Jewish, but the Satow takes pains to give a full history while chronicling three famed women, and the Jewish involvement in the garment and clothing is undeniable. I wish more time had been spent on Beatrice Fox Auerbach, the Jewish owner of G. Fox and Company, who seemed to be as generous as she was clever. It’s rumored she was the inspiration behind Don’s “one that got away” department store owner love interest on Mad Men. Also included is a chapter on what most consider the first black owned department store, Saint Luke Emporium, run by activist and entrepreneur Maggie Lena Walker.
There is glitz and glamor in When Women Ran Fifth Avenue, but there is also cut throat fashion industry politics and some very sad commentary on women balancing careers and personal lives. You get the sense these ladies had to make choices that were most certainly not required of their male counterparts. But you also see how allowing women to take the reigns and create a shopping experience for other women works so much better than letting men tell us what we want (There’s an enraging quote by a man that assumes all women are dressing to impress men. Sigh.). I may have my objections to Geraldine Stutz’s choice of ideal body type and Bendel’s only stocking items for that particular kind of person, but Lena Himmelstein (Jewish!), creator of Lane Bryant is right there standing as a counterpoint to her.
Online shopping has changed the entire industry, as has fast fashion. You can’t take a stroll through Bendel’s anymore, and the Bonwitt Teller building is now a Trump Towers. Things change, our tastes evolve, but the I remember these lessons every time I dress myself. I can be whoever I want to be, present whatever face to the world I like, and that is partially thanks to these women who gave women a safe space to buy their clothes.