Friday, October 8, 2010
The British Fortnight at Neiman Marcus
Once upon a time, not so very long ago, an enterprising store owner in Dallas, Texas, set out to produce the greatest event ever-known in retail marketing. Before the World Wide Web, business owners were constantly searching for the best way to get their product to the public. How could they position their businesses to attract publicity to enhance the dollars they themselves spent on marketing? How to build that better mouse-trap to set themselves apart from the crowd? In 1957, Stanley Marcus, second generation merchant in the store which bears his name (along with that of his aunt and uncle, Carrie Marcus Neiman and her husband, A. L. Neiman) decided to expand on the already great marketing ploys his father, aunt and uncle used. In 1957, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the eponymous Dallas department store, “Mr. Stanley”, as he was known throughout the store, introduced the idea of an International Fortnight event. (The word fortnight refers to an old English word indicating a unit of time equal to fourteen days.) He placed this event – which ran for 29 years –in October, historically a slow time in the retail business. The two week event, which featured a different country or theme each year, marked a flurry of activity in Dallas reflecting all good things about the featured country or theme – art, music, theater, food, film. It became the premier social and shopping event in Dallas, bringing to Texas the culture, products, celebrities, customs and food from more than 30 countries. “Fortnight” at the downtown Dallas Neiman-Marcus flagship store generated more sales than the following holiday season. Anne Peterson, photography curator at DeGolyer Library at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, home to the papers of Stanley Marcus, said “Mention Neiman Marcus Fortnight to any Dallas woman over 40 and her eyes begin to glow.”
The first Neiman Marcus Fortnight featured France, then the epicenter of world fashion. Time magazine covered this masterpiece of marketing and dubbed the event “Dallas in Wonderland”. The premier event was off and running with no less than the first international flight to arrive in Dallas’ Love Field Airport. The star passenger on this flight was the high priestess of fashion herself, Coco Chanel. The flagship store, located in downtown Dallas, was transformed into Paris – but deep in the heart of Texas. Politicians, fashion moguls, chefs, writers, and more than 120 top French business executives made the trip to Dallas. Using Texas money and ingenuity, the six-story store was transformed. The first floor became a three-dimensional replica of the Place de la Concorde. The second floor featured replicas of paintings by French artists such as Gaugain and Mondrian. The fourth floor of the store was transformed into a mirror image of Christian Dior’s atelier in Paris. The Zodiac Room, the in-store restaurant on the sixth floor made famous by chef Helen Corbitt, was transformed into Maxim’s restaurant in Paris. Quoting Stanley Marcus in Time (October 28, 1957) “This is producing direct, cold-cash business. But it is more than just a luxury show – it is cultural and intellectual as well.” The “Fortnight” brought the world to Dallas for 29 years.
The countries explored for the Fortnight celebrations varied. Some countries appeared several times. On a couple of occasions a theme was chosen, such as the 1971 “Fete des Fleurs – A Festival of Flowers and Fashion”. However, in 1970, Stanley Marcus showed his playful side and chose the entirely fictional middle European country of Ruritania. This imaginary place – born in the mind of writer, Anthony Hope, and used as the site of several novels – became “a generic term for any imaginary small, European kingdom used as the setting for romance, intrigue and adventure.”
“The Store”, as Stanley Marcus referred to his empire, carried out the theme for each Fortnight in even the smallest details. One popular souvenir was the special shopping bag designed for each Fortnight. Hattiesburg interior designer, Jimmy Reeves of Dragon Court Designs, located in Old Eleven Plaza, has a wonderful collection of these special bags. Mr. Reeves sites Neiman Marcus as an inspiration to bring the best in the world to his shop.
In the fall of 1984 I was living in Columbia, married less than a year, and not tied down with a full time job. My sister-in-law was working in sales for a ladies clothing line based in Dallas. Her job required that she travel from her home in Vicksburg, MS, to Dallas several times a year for the fashion wholesale market. Beth asked me to go with her. We took some time off from her work to cruise through the downtown Neiman Marcus – considered by some to be the only Neiman Marcus (even though at one time there were 43 branch stores). We were thoroughly enjoying all the eye candy in this, arguably the most famous retail store – outside New York – in the United States. We were “just looking” at the wonderful array of merchandise in a department when we were stopped by store security. “Sorry, ladies”, the uniformed store guard said as he used stanchions and velvet rope to cordon off part of the department. “You’ll have to stay behind this rope.” Always curious, Beth and I inquired about the reason for the barricade. His response was that some VIP was about to pass through the department on a tour of the store. Being from small town Mississippi and naturally curious about someone famous, we decided to stay at our spot just behind the rope to see the VIP. To our very great surprise, in just a few minutes Her Royal Highness, Princess Margaret, of Great Britian walked just feet away from us. Accompanied by Stanley Marcus, CEO of the store, and a phalanx of body guards and other security types, she seemed intent on whatever Mr. Marcus was explaining to her. She was more petite in person than I had imagined her to be. She had on a lime green and white patterned dress in a heavy material. Over her arm was the customary handbag and – when I saw it I couldn’t believe my eyes……..white shoes! Obviously no one had explained to HRH the rule which all Southern girls are taught from a very young age….. white shoes were never to be worn after Labor Day. How I wished I had a hot-line to heaven to tell my paternal grandmother, at one time the arbiter of all things fashion in my hometown, that HRH Princess Margaret had on white shoes in October. I was reeling with shock that a European royal had committed what was, to my grandmother, a fatal fashion faux paus. In a split second I understood the reason she had made so many mistakes in her life - adultery, drug addition and others …….she had never learned this cardinal rule of fashion etiquette.