In When Women Ran Fifth Avenue, award-win­ning jour­nal­ist and author of The Plaza Julie Satow chron­i­cles the rise of the depart­ment store through daz­zling por­traits of three vision­ary women who took great risks, forg­ing new paths for the women who fol­lowed in their foot­steps. This styl­ish account, rich with per­son­al dra­ma and trade secrets, cap­tures the depart­ment store in all its glitz, deca­dence, and fun, and show­cas­es the women who made that beau­ti­ful­ly curat­ed world go round.

This his­to­ry of Amer­i­can fash­ion and the depart­ment store is inex­tri­ca­ble from Jew­ish his­to­ry, from the Jew­ish immi­grants who worked in New York’s Gar­ment Dis­trict to influ­en­tial design­ers and cre­ators like Hat­tie Carnegie and Lena Him­mel­stein (bet­ter known as the cre­ator of Lane Bryant). These sto­ries are inter­wo­ven through­out Satow’s glit­ter­ing account of a bygone era of inno­va­tion and glamour.