News

By Emily J. Minor

From the time it opened in 1826, Lord & Taylor has been considered the go-to store for women’s dresses. The gray lady of fashion, if you will.
Neatly arrayed on their tidy racks was something for everyone, from a breezy sundress for the polo match to a navy blue tailored number for a business meeting. Today, of course, Lord & Taylor has expanded into shoes, handbags, swimwear, even menswear.
But why is the Lord & Taylor label so iconic? Who in the heck were Lord and Taylor?
And why are we talking about this?
Well, if you want an all-around Me Island experience — valet parking, personal shopper, a seamstress to hem your slacks just-so, even a guys lounge with a flat-screen TV — you might’ve hit the jackpot.
Lord & Taylor is scheduled to open a new store Oct. 10 in Boca Raton’s Mizner Park. And, yes, it’ll have all the above.
“Lord & Taylor has gone through some changes,” says Lori J. Durante, a fashion consultant and historian who runs the Museum of Lifestyle and Fashion History in Boynton Beach. “And their image is just as their name sounds. They had a strong, conservative Old World image, if you will.
“They were famous for having an in-depth dress department. If you needed something for a gala, this is where you went.”
Today?
“Consumers change and you often have a new audience, and that is where Lord & Taylor has been refocusing,” she said.
Eileen DiLeo, executive vice president of stores at Hudson’s Bay Co., Lord & Taylor’s parent company, said they’re thrilled with the chance to offer “chic, elevated fashion that is tailored for Florida’s climate.” (We’re hoping this means Michael Kors himself will attend the grand opening, whipping up something light and sassy with mosquito netting, right there on the spot.)
And while that probably won’t happen — sigh — DiLeo said they will carry designer lines like Kors, Theory, Marc by Marc Jacobs and Coach. The two-level store will be 80,000 square feet. And the company’s not kidding about a lounge for the men. Besides the flat screen, they’re promising “comfortable seating and reading materials.”
Appropriate stuff, we’re sure.
It would seem all these new business decisions would make Samuel Lord and George Washington Taylor proud. The store’s founders — What, you were hoping for a British lord and a hapless tailor? — Lord and Taylor founded the store in 1826 on Catherine Street in Manhattan. Lord was an immigrant from England and Taylor was his wife’s cousin.
The business partners specialized in hosiery, misses’ wear and elegant cashmere shawls.
By 1870, they were so successful they’d moved to the new cast iron building at Broadway and 20th. Their flagship store, later built on Fifth Avenue between 38th and 39th streets, was named a New York City landmark in 2007.
In their famous script logo, the ampersand in Lord & Taylor is really more of a dash. It began that way in the early years, handwritten a little differently each time, and has always stood for the “human, personable, hands-on style of the store,” according to the company’s history.
In its most recent heyday 15 or so years ago, the company operated more than 80 retail stores — eventually closing 32 of those stores because of sales numbers. They’ve been owned by the May Co., Federated Department Stores and now Hudson’s Bay Co.
But when fashion lover Durante thinks of Lord & Taylor, she can’t help but think classic and clean. And she thinks they’ll always have that on the rack.
Through the years, the store well known for its sturdy gift boxes emblazoned with the wispy red rose (Those boxes aren’t coming back, BTW) has chalked up some interesting “firsts.”
They were the first department store to decorate their Christmas windows with elaborate displays, rather than store merchandise. They were the first department store to open a branch store in the suburbs (Manhasset, N.Y., 1941).
And in 1946, Lord & Taylor became the first department store to hire a female president. Well-dressed, ambitious and not afraid to speak up, Dorothy Shaver was constantly scrutinizing the store’s customer care, taking surveys, scribbling notes. Eventually, she pitched the idea of pairing one customer with one sales girl, for one-on-one service.
Yes, Dorothy Shaver invented the personal shopper. And indecisive women everywhere thank her. 

The Mizner Park store opens to the public at 10 a.m. Oct. 10.  A ticketed preview party will be held 6-9 p.m. Oct. 9. Tickets are $25 and are on sale through the Junior League of Boca Raton or the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County.