Neiman Marcus, the admired luxury store, will rejoice its 100th anniversary On Sept. 10th. A hundred years is a landmark for any business, moreover, it's significant for a vendor dependent upon the whims of high fashion.
In 1907, the store opened "at the crossroads of cotton and cattle" in Dallas, says Ken Downing, fashion director and Senior Vice President of Neiman Marcus. The town was far away from being recognized for its stylish culture.
Herbert Marcus, his sister, Carrie Marcus Neiman, and her husband, the founders were all under the age of thirty when they fashioned the specialty store for the Texans who were coveting, but not capable to find, the latest in fine apparel from New York and Paris. Lore has it that women lined up in front of the store at Elm and Murphy streets on that September day, some wearing no shoes.
The owners, who had invested twenty five thousand dollars into the company, had a hit on their hands. "Within a month after the store opened, they had to make a pilgrimage to New York to restock," Downing says.
Nowadays, Neiman Marcus is surreptitiously held and has thirty nine stores all through the United States, as well as in Palo Alto and San Francisco. It's well-known for its annual holiday catalog, which always offers one shocking "His and Her" gift. The offerings have ranged from airplanes and submarines to Shar-Pei puppies and action figures made in your likeness.