Review of When Women Ran Fifth Avenue: Glamour and Power at the Dawn of American Fashion by Julie Satow

*When Women Ran Fifth Avenue: Glamour and Power at the Dawn of American Fashion* by Julie Satow (2024). Published by Doubleday.

If you’re new here, and stumbled upon this blog through the mythical powers of the Internet, welcome! I know a lot of visitors to my website are people who randomly come upon this website through search engines like Google, but I also do have a lot of visitors who come back. Regardless: my name is Ashley, and I started this blog in order to keep track of everything I’m coming across in the world.

For three years I worked professionally as a film critic, and while going to all of the film festivals and interviewing directors and actors was cool for a while, but I wanted to reclaim my time and watch movies I wanted to watch. Sometimes watching all of the new releases is great, and behind ahead of the curve, but I feel like I was falling so behind on movies I was genuinely excited about.

So I quit and decided to focus on this blog, and fell back more into literary criticism. I also randomly fell into a period of unemployment because of unexpected circumstances, and I took a long and hard look at my finances and realized I had enough to take time off. I did end up doing that, traveled for a bit, applied to jobs, and found myself working on the blog now more than ever.

The past two blog posts (including this one) are really tapping into fashion history! I was inspired to read When Women Ran Fifth Avenue because when I went to college, I went to the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. Going there made me resent the industry and how it exploits others, which changed my career path, but it did instill a love and interest for fashion history as a whole.

So when I first heard about this book, when it was first announced, I knew I wanted to read it. I did end up reading Empresses of Seventh Avenue at the same time, which has quite a bit of overlap with this book because of how small and concentrated the fashion industry and key players were at this time.

Let’s get into the review! I don’t want to keep going on and on in the introduction alone, as I know it’s not what most people are here for.

An in-depth look into the fashion industry and the women who helped run it in mid-century America.

If you’re looking to get a specific look into the broader history of the American fashion industry during this period, this might not be the book for you. As the title of the book suggests, we’re looking into women, specifically three incredible women, who helped shape the industry into what it is today. Or, well, before online shopping became a concept.

The department store was once a staple of American culture, and even around the world. When I was doing my master’s thesis on colonial Korean women’s literature, I never forgot how some of my readings discussed the department store being introduced into Korea was a model of colonialism by the Japanese. It was seen as progressive, more Western, and would modernize what they saw as a backwards culture and people.

Nowadays, in the US though, the department store is a dying breed thanks to the likes of places like Amazon. But in the middle of the 20th century, the department store is where you did everything if you were of status. You book vacations there, bought apparel and home decor, were seen in their various cafes in order to show you were a cultured woman.

But in this book, we see how some of the most prominent American department stores were eventually spearheading entire departments, even the department store themselves. These women were Hortense Odlum (Bonwit Teller), Dorothy Shaver (Lord & Taylor), and Geraldine Stutz (Henri Bendel).

As described by Satow, these were remarkable women who had their pulse on the American fashion industry. They started out as common workers, but proved themselves worthy (and they were white) to be moved into the upper echelons of leadership.

Some, like Odlum, changed American fashion history by specifically championing American designers. Before, American fashion wasn’t seen as luxurious. Everyone wanted the French and European latest styles, but after she took over, there were more opportunities for American design.

That’s just one of the incredible stories about these women. I really recommend reading this book in tandem with Empresses of Seventh Avenue. I did mention how that there is some overlap between the two books, but at the same time they compliment each other in ways where they fill in the gaps as needed.

Overall Thoughts

I’m really glad I ended up getting to this book in the end! Usually I majorly procrastinate on a book to the point where it’s years before I read them, but I was pretty prompt with this book. It’s also a fairly quick read to me; I finished it in an hour and a half, but I am a fast reader in general.

Fashion is deemed as a “female” interest and something that is considered to be only for women, but we often disregard the remarkable women who helped make it happen. A lot of major designers we admire are all men too, but this was such a fascinating glimpse into the women behind the business and shaped how the industry was throughout the years.

We need to acknowledge the women who are hidden by the curtain like this more. Women’s history is largely neglected in cultural memory, so I truly appreciate books like these.

Pick this one up if you’re interested; it’s definitely worth it.

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