WHEN WOMEN RAN FIFTH AVENUE: Glamour and Power at the Dawn of American Fashion, by Julie SatowIn 1980, Donald J. Trump made the front page of The New York Times after assaulting a pair of scantily clad women at a Fifth Avenue department store.
The sculptures’ significance was allegorical as well as architectural: Department stores, though erected mostly by men, have always been feminine domains.
“The Ladies’ Paradise” is the English title of Émile Zola’s 1883 novel, set at a store modeled after Le Bon Marché, still standing in Paris despite the ravages of e-commerce.
Patricia Highsmith framed her 1952 lesbian romance “The Price of Salt” at the fictional Frankenberg’s, based on Bloomingdale’s.
Now Julie Satow has written a group biography of the department-store doyennes who ran the show — and these places in their heyday really were a form of theater — for the male founders and owners whose names adorned the facades.
Persons:
Julie Satow, Donald J, Trump, Bonwit Teller, Émile, Le Bon Marché, Patricia Highsmith
Organizations:
WOMEN, New York Times, Trump Tower, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Department
Locations:
Paris