A BIT OF FASHION HISTORY

Quoted from an advertising brochure from the H. O'Neill & Co. Department Store, Sixth Avenue corner of 20th Street, New York City 1883:

To Our Lady Friends and Patrons ~
This card is especially designed to show some of our numerous styles in trimmed hats and untrimmed bonnets and hats of which we have the largest and best assortment in the City at the lowest popular prices.

Every department replete with new goods, imported costumes, walking suits, wraps, dolmans, fichus and ladies' underwear in silk and merino. Laces and madeup lace goods. Umbrellas & parasols, ribbons and fancy silks, fine silk and lisle thread hosiery, passementerie & dress trimmings, dress goods, housekeeping linens and white goods.

On this page from time to time I will offer you, gentle reader, a glimpse into the past by way of fashion and tea articles gleaned from history, as well as my writings. Our present offering refers to a famous place which existed once upon a time.

THE LADIES MILE

In the mid-Victorian period, beginning in the 1860's, there was a retailing phenomenon in fashion history known, in the gentler language of that time, as The Ladies Mile in New York City.

This historic shopping area was located on lower Broadway, bound on the west by Sixth Avenue between Eighth Street and Twenty-third Street.
When skies were blue and days were sunny observers could enjoy the broad white vistas of gleaming facades, ornately sculptured buildings adorned with striped awnings which shaded the elaborate display windows, offering a most spectacular sight.

Victorians felt that anything worth doing was worth overdoing. Fountains and sculptures were plentiful.
Doormen in top hats presided over emporium entrances. Lord & Taylor had a popular steam elevator, which boasted a divan, plush carpet and gas chandeliers.

The Ladies Mile was an elegant cobblestoned stretch which played host daily to exquisitely clad ladies in fashion finery and elaborately feathered chapeaux, who alighted from horse-drawn carriages and proceeded to float diaphanously into the grand emporiums to buy the latest in furbelows and fripperies, millinery and veils, garnitures, adornment and embellishment.

This daily scene became a dazzling assemblage of beauty and fashion, a feast for the eyes if you will. Ladies promenaded in their finest attire until the end of the nineteenth century when department stores were among the most beautiful buildings of the Victorian period.

At a later date I will share with you articles I have written for LADY'S GALLERY MAGAZINE and other publications, which pertain to Victorian fashion and vintage bridal attire.

Please feel free to browse through my web site, searching for that one item in particular you must have. I have an extensive inventory so please contact me via email or by phone if you are looking for a special vintage piece. I will continue to expand and add items to this site as time goes by.

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