The A to Z of the Fashion Industry by Francesca Sterlacci Purvin & Joanne Arbuckle

Author:Francesca Sterlacci Purvin & Joanne Arbuckle
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Published: 2008-03-14T16:00:00+00:00

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NATURAL FIBERS. Any fiber made from a plant, animal, or mineral resource. Natural fibers from plants include cotton, linen, jute, ramie, sisal, and hemp. Fibers from animals include silk, wool, angora, mohair, and alpaca. Fruit fiber is collected from the coconut, stalk fiber is culled from bamboo and grass, and straw comes from from wheat, barley and rice.

NAUTICA (1953– ). Taiwanese-born David Chu found his way into the fashion business via his architecture studies where one of his teachers at the Fashion Institute of Technology saw his potential as a fashion designer. In 1993, after an unsuccessful export business venture in Taipei and a stint at a large conglomerate in the United States, Chu began designing nautical inspired menswear and sold them to Barneys and Bloomingdale’s. Within ten years, the company went from sales of $700,000 to $1 billion. In 2003, Nautica merged with the VF Corporation and is now a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. In 2005, David Chu launched a new company called DC Design International, his own high-end collection of menswear.

NEIMAN MARCUS. This specialty store was established in 1907 by Herbert Marcus, his sister, Carrie Marcus, and her husband, Abraham L. (Al) Neiman, in Dallas, Texas. All three of the founders had retail experience: Herbert had been a buyer for Sanger Brothers, Carrie was an assistant buyer for A. Harris and Co. (Sanger and Harris were the two leading department stores in Dallas at the time), and Al worked at Harris in sales. Naming the store Neiman Marcus, the founders set out to create a specialty store featuring high-end women’s outerwear and millinery. After a fire destroyed the first store in 1913, they reopened within seventeen days at another Dallas location and developed a reputation for high prices and high quality. The clientele consisted of wealthy cotton aristocrats and, later, oil-rich Texans.

In 1926, Herbert’s son Stanley entered the business and, in 1928, Neiman sold his interest in the business for $250,000 when his marriage to Carrie ended in divorce. In 1930, the discovery of the East Texas oilfield brought a new group of millionaires to the store and despite the effects of the Great Depression elsewhere in the country, Neiman Marcus’s business boomed. In 1934, the store was the first retailer outside of New York City to advertise in Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar and, in 1938, it created the Neiman Marcus Award for Distinguished Service in the Field of Fashion, the “Oscar” of fashion. In 1939, Stanley Marcus created the famous Christmas catalog tradition, another of his marketing ploys to bring visibility to the store.

After World War II, the store began to add branches. Another store was opened in Dallas and then in Ft. Worth and Houston. Upon Herbert’s death in 1950, son Stanley became president. After a devastating fire in 1964 at one of the Dallas stores, Neiman’s merged with California-based Broadway-Hale stores in 1969 and, shortly after, with another group to form Carter Hawley Hale Incorporated. Stanley became a top executive at Carter Hawley Hale, while his son Richard was appointed president of Neiman Marcus.

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