Henri Bendel and the Worlds He Fashioned

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“The unlikely, lively epic of . . . Manhattan’s reigning taste arbiter. A tour de force.”-Amy Fine Collins, fashion historian, editor-at-large of Air Mail

An “extraordinary American story.”-Lynn Yaeger, Vogue

“Allis’s thorough and beautifully illustrated account reveals both the qualities that made Bendel successful and the thrilling, volatile history of the industry in which he made his mark. Fashionistas will be delighted.”-Publishers Weekly

Henri Bendel. A store of legend. A man of mystery. And the first-ever book to explore and celebrate both in a style worthy of its fashionable subjects.

Milliner, designer, dress importer. Ambassador of French fashion in America. Henri Willis Bendel was celebrated in his lifetime as a tastemaker and merchant prince but is now a nearly lost figure. His journey from a humble upbringing in late-nineteenth-century Louisiana to the pinnacle of high society was remarkable: Starting with a small hat shop in Greenwich Village in 1896, he eventually redrew the map of fashion retail, turning then-strictly residential Fifty-Seventh Street into “the Rue de la Paix of New York.” He introduced his discerning clients to such influential designers as Schiaparelli, Molyneaux, and Chanel. He outfitted Astors, Vanderbilts, and stars of stage and screen from the sunset of the Gilded Age past the dawn of the Jazz Age. But he also brought a democratization to fashion and in syndicated newspaper columns dispensed pithy and impassioned fashion advice to women across the nation who might never set foot in his store.

Henri Bendel and the Worlds He Fashioned traces his life from his upbringing in a tight-knit Jewish family headed by his immigrant stepfather and mother–herself an enterprising merchant–to his early dry goods business, then to the romance that led him to New York and the tragedy that would set in motion his rapid ascent. Bendel was treated as a kindred soul in the Paris salons of haute couture and throughout Europe, where he amassed rare antiques, then built dramatic showplaces back home in which to place them. All the while he stayed loyal to his kin down South and to his chosen family up East, which consisted of blood relatives and two beloved companions whose true place in Henri’s heart required discretion, owing to the constrictions of the time.

Richly illustrated with dazzling fashion photography, Henri Bendel also recounts the history of his storied store from its bustles-and-corsets years through the days of furs and flappers, then on to the tailored chic of the 1930s and ’40s. In more modern times, the legendary president Geraldine Stutz made Bendel’s a cornucopia of cutting-edge designers and innovative merchandising, a lure for the most famous and fashionable women in America. In its long, final era, Leslie Wexner of The Limited expanded the store’s reach and solicited younger clients, emphasizing jewelry, accessories, and dazzle. Those various and sometimes-at-odds incarnations define Bendel’s extraordinary 123-year run under the iconic brown and white stripes first sketched by Henri, who himself said, “A designer, to be successful, must feel the trend of the times.”

Univ of Louisiana at Lafayette