When Women Ran Fifth Avenue: Glamour and Power at the Dawn of American Fashion

The term pret-a-porter (French for “ready-to-wear”), defined in opposition to haute couture, refers to clothing sold in standardized sizes for a large shopping population rather than individual clients. Although the ready-to-wear clothing market had long existed for working-class customers, Geraldine Stutz popularized the market for middle-class and elite shoppers in the United States for the first time in the 1950s, rebranding it as pret-a-porter. As president of Henri Bendel, Geraldine brought in “a raft of young, upstart designers who were […] breaking from traditional couture hierarchy to make non-custom yet expertly tailored clothing at moderate prices” (238). She presented pret-a-porter designers as an alternative to the stuffy, elitist nature of traditional haute couture. The pret-a-porter market presented “well-crafted European pieces offered in select, limited quantities,” a modern and affordable update on the hierarchical haute couture system (239). As the market grew, it moved gradually from “basement sewing rooms” and “kitchen tables” to the New York City warehouses that constitute the needle trade (238). Although the pret-a-porter industry was established as an alternative to haute couture fashion, many haute couture brands such as Chanel and Dior also offer ready-to-wear lines today.

The term “needle trade” refers to the manufacturing industry centered in New York’s garment district, a historic neighborhood that now stretches from 34th to 42nd street between Fifth and Ninth Avenues in midtown Manhattan. The first mass-produced clothing items in the United States were military uniforms produced for American soldiers during the War of 1812. The vast number of uniforms needed required the construction of “cavernous warehouses” in New York City (115). After the war, these warehouses were refitted for commercial retail trade, pointing to the book’s thematic interest in The Mutual Influence of Fashion and Technology. When the commercial trade first emerged in the 19th century, it was comprised primarily of “Jewish immigrants [who] bent their backs for hours over sewing machines churning out identical, cheap anonymously designed clothes for the masses” (115). In later years, the industry expanded as immigration and industrialization grew in the United States: immigrants provided “cheap, skilled labor” while industrialization “increased productivity and profits” (115). As these descriptions suggest, Satow distinguishes the American needle trade from French haute couture and pret-a-porter, which highlighted craftsmanship and original design over sheer production numbers and efficiency of labor.