Saks Fifth Avenue, Beverly Hills, 1938

Posted on January 6, 2015 by

Saks Fifth Avenue, Beverly Hills, 1938This shot is of the Saks Fifth Avenue store, Beverly Hills, 1938. When I came across this photo, I couldn’t see any merchandise, so I thought perhaps it was some sort of “ladies lounge.” But then I read that the store had a reputation for placing its merchandise in recesses, “tastefully out of plain view” so maybe this was one of the sales floors. That’s all very well, but I don’t quite understand how they managed to sell anything if you couldn’t see it!

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5 responses to “Saks Fifth Avenue, Beverly Hills, 1938”

  1. diana says:
    February 23, 2015 at 1:27 am

    Merchandise was brought out by the sales ladies and held up in front of seated customers. If a customer was at all interested in any of the selections, the merchandise was displayed on live models

    Reply
    • Martin Turnbull says:
      February 23, 2015 at 6:47 am

      Ah, those were the days, huh?

      Reply
    • Magarete says:
      February 23, 2015 at 8:23 pm

      The irony, responding to this on the same day!

      Diana is right; it was true customer service, and the intrigue of what lovely garments would appear from the back was superior marketing. I would imagine this is how the Paris salons also looked, lined with sophisticated ladies of wealth and prestige. If one watches “I Love Lucy” when she’s at Don Loper’s salon, it provides a very good representation of the times. Here’s an IMBD link to the 1955 episode: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0609353/

      I can recall shopping with my mom in the mid-60s at a local department store, and all of the lingerie was behind the counter. She had to ask for sizes, colors, etc., and was personally waited on by a clerk. This was the norm, and it wasn’t high end, either. Those were the days.

      Marvelous post!

      Reply
  2. Elizabeth Honnold says:
    September 2, 2015 at 9:51 am

    Comments are 100 per cent…you were also provided with a helper in the large dressing rooms who would help with buttons, snaps, etc., and if the dress needed just a little tweak to reach perfection, a fitter would be called in. She would have a pincushion on a lanyard around her neck and a tape measure too. Finished alterations would (in the case of I. Magnins or Bullocks Wilshire) be delivered to your home by a store van or truck. If you found the perfect frock that needed no changes, it would be added to your bill, boxed and sent down to the rear of the store by the parking lot to be picked up when you left. These amenities disappeared…and Ohrbachs on Beverly (?) was the harbinger of doom for the nice end of ladies retail. We lost the charm in the scrum of racks on the floor and elbows gouging for bargains.

    Reply

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