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

Julie Satow is an American author and journalist, and the author of When Women Ran Fifth Avenue. She is a graduate of Columbia University in New York City, where she also received a Master’s of International Affairs. She continues to live and work in New York City with her husband. As a regular contributor to The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, her work frequently centers the fashion industry, real estate, and labor disputes. Notably, Along with When Women Ran Fifth Avenue, she is the author of The Plaza: The Secret Life of America’s Most Famous Hotel (2019), which traces the history of the wealthy visitors and scandalous owners of the New York City’s infamous Plaza Hotel. Like When Women Ran Fifth Avenue, The Plaza employs a similar structure—using personal narratives to examine changing social patterns across 20th-century American history. It was selected as a New York Times’ Editor’s Choice and an NPR Favorite Book of 2019.

After the success of The Plaza, Satow was inspired to write When Women Ran Fifth Avenue by her editor’s suggestion that she focus on department stores (“Book Insights.” juliesatow.com.). On her website, Satow engages directly with her readers through short videos in which she answers questions, describes her writing process and provides commentary on depictions of department stores in popular films and television series.