Henri Bendel

History and influence

Henri Willis Bendel was born in Louisiana in 1868 and moved to New York to work as a milliner. He married Blanche Lehman, a member of the Lehman family. He opened his first shop, in Greenwich Village, in 1895. In 1907, he began branding the brown-and-white striped boxes that are still identified with the company. In 1913, Henri Bendel was the first retailer to sell Coco Chanel designs in the U.S.

After Bendel's death in 1936, his nephew became the store's president and served until his retirement in 1954. Bendel's nephew, who later founded Belgian Shoes, died in 1997.

Geraldine Stutz was president of Henri Bendel from 1957 to 1986. Stutz had "a legendary eye for discovering the newest designers and using them first," including Perry Ellis, Jean Muir, Sonia Rykiel, Carlos Falchi, Mary McFadden, and Ralph Lauren. In 1958, Stutz turned the store's main sales floor into a "U-shaped 'Street of Shops,'" which some consider the forerunner of today's shop-within-a-shop merchandising displays.

During the 1960s, Andy Warhol was an in-house illustrator. Beginning in 1994, Izak Zenou's illustrations have appeared on Henri Bendel ads and promotional materials.

In 1977, Stutz recruited Patricia Peterson, fashion editor of The New York Times, to be vice president in charge of Advertising, Fashion and Promotion, a position Peterson maintained until her retirement in 1989. During her 12-year tenure, Peterson invited guest artists, such as Edward Gorey and Candy Pratts, to create Bendel's famous window displays. She and her husband, fashion photographer Gösta Peterson, created a weekly ad campaign for Bendel's that ran as a half-page in The New York Times each Sunday.