NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A glittering portrait of the golden age of American department
stores and of three visionary women who led them from the award-winning author of The Plaza .
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Vogue Smithsonian New York Post and Financial Times "Ms.
Satow’s carefully researched book is compulsively readable: I found myself dashing through it
like a novel. She portrays the women with verve we get a glimpse into their lives as well as
a sense of what it was like at each of these retail meccas." — The Wall Street Journal
"Compelling and colorful" — The Washington Post The twentieth century American department
store: a palace of consumption where women shopper and shopgirl alike could stake out a
newfound independence. Whether in New York Chicago or on Main Street USA men owned the
buildings but inside women ruled. In this hothouse atmosphere three women rose to the top.
In the 1930s Hortense Odlum of Bonwit Teller came to her husband's department store as a
housewife and wound up running the company. Dorothy Shaver of Lord & Taylor championed American
designers during World War II--before which US fashions were almost exclusively Parisian
copies--becoming the first businesswoman to earn a $1 million salary. And in the 1960s
Geraldine Stutz of Henri Bendel re-invented the look of the modern department store and
inspired a devoted following of ultra-chic shoppers as well as decades of copycats. Journalist
Julie Satow draws back the curtain on three visionaries in this stylish account rich with
personal drama and trade secrets and showcases the women who made that beautifully curated
world go round.
