For more than a century, Henri Bendel stood on Fifth Avenue, the epitome of fashion and style. The creation of Henri (né Henry) Bendel, the store introduced French couture to America and set the standard for taste not only through its elegant clothing but also through Bendel’s nationally syndicated newspaper columns. In this entertaining and affectionate biography, Tim Allis follows Bendel from his beginnings in the backwaters of southern Louisiana to his eminence as the arbiter of fashion in the United States.
An innovative retailer, Bendel (1868 – 1936) was among the first to practice branding, with Bendel-labeled soaps and perfumes. Although the store stood for luxury, Bendel initiated regular clearance sales, like the one captured in Florine Stettheimer’s painting on the book jacket. Bendel dressed the Astors and the Vanderbilts as well as the stars of stage and screen; but he also offered tourists affordable mementos of their visit to the store. And, in a daring move, Bendel built his most impressive store on upper Fifth Avenue, then a residential area, paving the way for Fifth Avenue’s ascendancy as the fashion center of the country.
Born into a Jewish immigrant family, Bendel learned merchandising almost from birth. His father died when Bendel was six, but his mother was enterprising, and with Bendel’s stepfather, she ran several successful businesses. A gifted child with a talent for art and design, Bendel was educated at a Jesuit boys’ school. Upon his graduation, he set out on his own with seed money from his mother. He made his first major mark as a milliner in Morgan City, a center for the skin-and-feather trade, when hats were lavishly decorated with rare plumage. But two events changed Bendel’s life. In 1893, a fire destroyed his business in Morgan City, and in 1894, he married Blanche Lehman and moved to her home in New York City. Within a year Blanche died, perhaps in childbirth. To fight his grief, Henry threw himself into his business, now established in New York.
In 1896, Bendel and a partner opened a showroom in Greenwich Village, and Bendel made a trip, probably his first, to Paris, where a lifelong love affair began. He soon changed his first name to Henri and was on his way to fashion history. His frequent trips to Paris encouraged him to expand beyond millinery, and in 1906, he opened a luxuriously appointed store on Fifth Avenue that sold imported French couture. This was succeeded by his even more luxurious landmark store at 10 West 57th Street. A generous employer, in 1923, Bendel gave 45 percent of the store’s equity to his employees.
Always devoted to his family, Bendel made frequent trips to Louisiana. When his half sister was widowed at thirty-six, he brought her and her two children to live with him in New York, taking guardianship of the children and renaming her son Henri Bendel II. They joined Bendel’s two intimate, long-term companions, men who often lived with him and whom he made part of his business.
A handsome, large-format book illustrated with vintage photos and fashion plates, Henri Bendel and theWorlds He Fashioned attests to Bendel’s extraordinary taste and merchandising skill, his collection of fine antiques and the creation of stately homes to house them, and his devotion to his Louisiana roots and the personal family he fashioned. For readers interested in New York history, it also captures a period when the city was becoming the pace-setter in style and the arts. Although a highly public figure, Bendel left little private information. Allis has nevertheless brought him back to attention in this informative and lively book.
Maron L. Waxman, retired editorial director, special projects, at the American Museum of Natural History, was also an editorial director at HarperCollins and Book-of-the-Month Club.
