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

Hortense Odlum (1892-1970), one of the primary protagonists of When Women Ran Fifth Avenue, was the first female president of New York City’s Bonwit Teller department store. Satow depicts Hortense as “both a perpetrator and a victim of her era’s societal rules and the expectations that governed women” (275). Although she had “an instinctive business acumen” (12), Hortense had a habit of “diminishing her business accomplishments in a bid to retain her feminine bona fides” (95). When her husband Floyd Odlum divorced her and married aviator Jackie Cochran, Hortense blamed her career for the rift in her marriage, and “came to rue her time at Bonwit Teller” (19). Satow uses Hortense’s story to show how even women with successful careers internalize patriarchal thinking.

Hortense Odlum was president of Bonwit Teller from 1934 to 1940, and the store saw significant growth during her tenure, underscoring the book’s thematic interest in The Benefits of Women in Leadership. In her first year as president, “Hortense increased [Bonwit Teller’s] sales figures by 27 percent; in her second year she doubled them, and in her third year she tripled those numbers” (108). Despite this success, Hortense often dismissed her accomplishments, preferring to present herself as an ordinary housewife. In the press, Hortense “compared her position as store president to her role as a housewife hosting dinner parties” (98). She argued that “the greatest asset of the businesswoman is feminine charm and feminine clothes,” and dressed in more modest clothing than women of her status (173). Satow suggests that she intentionally presented herself in this way “to make palatable the fact of her working,” highlighting the inherent sexism and misogyny of the period (98).

These internalized patriarchal ideals are further evidenced in Hortense’s efforts to present herself as a conservative and traditionally feminine in the press. In the early years of her presidency, an article was published wondering at the fact that Hortense “had accomplished so much while still remaining ‘essentially feminine, presenting none of the traditional appearance of the typical successful business woman’” (109). Satow suggests that Floyd’s lengthy affair and the dissolution of their marriage reinforced Hortense’s assertion that her choice to step outside of the prescribed gender roles of the period—rather than her husband’s infidelity—caused her marriage to fail. After leaving Bonwit Teller, “Hortense decided that she had played the fool, and she began to vociferously, and publicly, decry women’s work,” attributing Floyd’s infidelity to her busy schedule and lack of time at home (266).

Dorothy Shaver (1893-1959), one of the protagonists of When Women Ran Fifth Avenue, was the first American woman to be president of a multi-million-dollar company. Satow depicts Dorothy as a foil to Hortense Odlum in her romantic relationships, ideological views, and her political activism. While Hortense presented herself as a housewife and mother, Dorothy embodied a “career-minded” woman who “eschewed romance to singularly pursue her ambition” as president of Lord & Taylor (20). At the height of her career, Dorothy earned an “eye-popping salary of $110,000 per year, the equivalent of more than $1.5 million in today’s dollars” (186). Dorothy’s salary was “the highest published salary ever for a female executive of that time,” complicating her social life. Because of the social expectations of her time, Dorothy “didn’t want a partner who earned less than her, severely limiting her dating pool” (195). She remained single for the rest of her life, choosing “not to compromise her ambition” to pursue a romantic relationship (196).

Satow also depicts Dorothy as a political foil to Hortense. While Hortense perpetuated regressive ideas about women in the workplace, Dorothy used her influence to “advocate for racial equality, and […] vociferously defend free thought” (39). Dorothy founded the American Design Awards and used the annual ceremonies to deliver political speeches. During the Red Scare, when politicians like Senator Joseph McCarthy were “crusading against alleged communist infiltration in American life,” Dorothy delivered a speech in which she “rebuked the ‘spreading passion for conformity,’ arguing how ‘conformist thinking has the potential power to destroy all the qualities which have made our country great’” (202).

Dorothy’s political agenda also influenced the establishment of the American fashion industry. After the success of her French Art Deco exhibit, she realized that she was “capable of going beyond simply serving her customers’ needs and wants; she could actually shape their tastes,” and decided to use her power to support the fledgling American fashion industry (67). As World War II inspired new feelings of patriotism, Dorothy vowed to “supplant French design altogether and create space for uniquely American fashion” (118). Satow presents this as an explicitly political decision, describing how “months into the French occupation, Lord & Taylor opened the Designer’s Shop, a boutique within the store that sold exclusively American designers” (124). Dorothy’s progressive political stances make her a complex foil for Hortense Odlum’s conservative and traditional views of women in the workplace.

Geraldine Stutz (1924-2005) was an American fashion editor and retailer who was the first female owner of a major department store, Henri Bendel, and a central figure in When Women Ran Fifth Avenue. Satow depicts Geraldine as a “theatrical and brilliant” (20) woman who embodied the “more liberal ethos” (147) that celebrated The Changing Roles of Women in 20th-Century America. She also utilized the emerging technology of the time to reimagine and customize the store’s mannequins and display windows, highlighting the book’s thematic interest in The Mutual Influence of Fashion and Technology. However, while Geraldine revolutionized Henri Bendel and made it a successful, profitable business, her marketing decisions perpetuated harmful biases against women who were not white, wealthy, and thin. During her tenure at Henri Bendel, Geraldine “rigorously enforced a strict regime at the store that weeded out customers who weren’t thin” (216). Although Geraldine inherited a store that sold women’s clothes in a diversity of sizes, four years after her presidency began, “83 percent of the clothing the store sold was sized 6 to 12, or sizes 0 to 6 today” (216). As president, Geraldine established the Bendel look as “clothes with a pitch so high and special that only the thinnest and most sophisticated women would hear their call” (216). Although Geraldine later claimed that “fashion was not about seducing women; it was a tool for women to find the best expression of themselves,” Satow suggests that Geraldine also used her fashion influence to develop a specific and exclusionary look among socially and economically elite New York City women (314).

Like Hortense Odlum and Dorothy Shaver, Geraldine’s romantic relationships were influenced by the gendered social expectations of the period. In her late 20s, Geraldine “was diagnosed with uterine cancer and underwent a hysterectomy that left her unable to have children,” devastating her and causing her to stop pursing romantic relationships for many years (151). In 1965, Geraldine married the British artist David Gibbs, but they divorced 12 years later and she remained unmarried for the rest of her life. Satow attributes the dissolution of their marriage to Gibbs’s insecurity about Geraldine’s success, noting that “around town and among their friends, David was known as Mr. Jerry Stutz” (295). Satow’s depiction of Geraldine suggests that, like Hortense Odlum, she was both a victim and a perpetrator of patterns reinforced harmful standards for the women of her day.