Jan Whitaker

Coincidentally, this book found me as Masterpiece Theatre is between two series set in department stores: Mr. Selfridge and The Paradise. Both are relatively mediocre series, but that's beside the point. This book is great background and detail on the development of department stores, back when they were way more than department stores as I know them. I can't say I'm nostalgic for them, as the author seems, but I do miss companies investing money in really attractive architecture. Tar-jay, show more eat your heart out.

MHC sighting: "The first college shop in a department store was opened in August 1930 at Stern's in New York City, at the inspiration of the store's advertising head, Estelle Hamburger, who got the idea from a Mount Holyoke student. The student informed her that department stores had no idea what college women liked. We dislike 'S.S. and G. stuff,' she said - 'sweet, simple, and girlish' things, which she dismissed as 'coy clothes that nobody wants.' Give us sweaters in subtle colors, Harris tweed coats, saddle oxfords, warm bathrobes, and chic red evening dresses, she proposed." Ah, where would American prep clothing be without Mohos!! (It goes without saying that I endorse this wardrobe.) show less

A beautifully illustrated book on department stores is full of photographs and ephemera from worldwide. Born in the Gilded Age, the department store grew thanks to the industrial revolution, the rise of the middle class, and the invention of steel-frame architecture and the elevator.
Spectacular entrances led to marble staircases and floor after floor of merchandise and amenities. These emporiums also inspired a whole new way of merchandising: shopping became an entertainment rather than a show more laborious grind; posters and advertisements were made by the great artists of the time, and elaborate shop windows attracted thousands of people during the holidays.
The department store quickly spread worldwide, and great architects were employed to build these temples to consumerism. show less

I was disappointed in this book. It read very much like someone's senior thesis which had been expanded, unimaginatively, into book length. The entire scope of the book was covered in the introductory chapter, and each succeeding chapter merely restated the same information, complete with stilted summary paragraph at the end of each. A potentially interesting subject which could have been described with much more life and enthusiasm. The illustrations were very nearly its only saving grace.