"A glittering, glamorous portrait of the golden age of American department stores and of the visionary women who led them, from the award-winning author of The Plaza. The twentieth-century American department store: a palace of consumption where every wish could be met under one roof--afternoon tea, a stroll through the latest fashions, a wedding (or funeral) planned. It was a place where women, shopper and shopgirl alike, could stake out a newfound independence. Whether in New York or Chicago or on Main Street, USA, men owned the buildings, but inside, women ruled. In this hothouse atmosphere, three women rose to the top. In the 1930s, Hortense Odlum of Bonwit Teller came to her husband's department store as a housewife tasked with attracting more shoppers like herself and wound up running the company. Dorothy Shaver of Lord & Taylor championed American designers during World War II--before which U.S. fashions were almost exclusively copies of Parisian originals--and earned more than $1.5 million in today's dollars, an unheard-of salary for a woman. And in the swinging 60s, Geraldine Stutz of Henri Bendel reinvented the look of the modern department store. With a preternatural sense for trends, she inspired a devoted following of ultrachic socialites and celebrities, as well as decades of copycats."-- Provided by publisher.