The Queen of Garfinckel's

[The following is an article from Colliers Magazine, February 10, 1951. This was a time when there were no racks of clothing in the store: Ladies came in to shop, sat on sofas and were shown the clothing on models. And strangely enough for the time, the merchandising operations of the Garfinckel's stores were run by a woman, Miss Elizabeth Fairall, who had been with Julius Garfinckel since the beginning of the company in 1905. During a time when corporations were run by men, I'm sure this article about the female vice president of one of the most important fashion retailers in the United States was unique.]

First ladies in need of a gown head straight for this top fashion expert. She has outfitted Presidents' wives since Theodore Roosevelt's day.

Queen Elizabeth of Garfinckel's
by Stacy V. Jones

For 45 years Elizabeth Fairall has been clothing Washington hostesses, from Presidents' wives to career girls, in the process doing more than any other person to bring glamour into capital drawing rooms and cocktail lounges. She has moved a little in advance of the trend all the way from the dressmaker era to the period of the strapless Paris gown.

At seventy Miss Fairall is dean of the fashion buyers in Paris, New York and Los Angeles, and she is as well known for energy in her own field as Eleanor Roosevelt is in public affairs. Not content with her job as Vice-President of Julius Garfinckel & Company, Washington's leading women's store, she does a split week between that city and New York. There she has invaded Fifth Avenue to inject new life into the A. De Pinna Company, which Garfinckel's bought last year.

Garfinckel's also owns the famous old New York house of Brooks Brothers, but she stays away from there. ("That's a man's store.") Elizabeth Fairall is Garfinckel's to the old employees (they call her "Queen Liz") and to the old customers. "She's never too busy to see you," said a woman clerk with more than 30 years' service. "I'd hate to think of the store without her." Women who bought their first ready-made clothes from her in 1905 refuse to select their granddaughters' trousseaux without her personal approval. Five generations of some families have been her customers, including almost all the first ladies since Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, and virtually every feminine member of capital high society since the turn of the century.

Garfinckel's, which is to Washington what I. Magnin is to San Francisco and what Neiman-Marcus is to Dallas, owes its fashion standing chiefly to Miss Fairall. It is one of a handful of leading women's specialty stores (which aren't quite department stores because they don't carry heavy household items) Garfinckel's probably has as many big couturier names under one roof as you will find anywhere in America - among them Balenciaga, Balmain, Desses, Dior, Fath, and Heim from Paris; Hattie Carnegie, Ceil Chapman, Charles James, Nanty, Ben Reig, Nettie Rosenstein, Adele Simpson, Traina-Norell and Trigere from New York; Adrian and Irene from California.

The founder of the business, Julius Garfinckel, drew a loyal following of women customers from the "cave-dwellers" ( old Washington families) , the upper bracket government set, and the horsey crowd in the nearby Virginia and Maryland hunt country. When he died in 1936, he left the bulk of his fortune to found The Hannah Harrison school in honor of his Irish mother. Elizabeth Fairall, who had been his right hand in merchandising for 30 years, carried on his insistence on quality and style, and his rule that the customer is king

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Her stamina is the envy of her associates. "I'm a good forty years younger than Miss Fairall," said one of them, "but she wears me out."

This dynamic lady has a deceptive appearance. She is plump, gray, and pleasant. She never raises her voice or appears to be in a hurry. She answers her own telephone ("Miss Fairall speaking") , and leaves the door of her office open. Anybody from stock boy to a fellow vice-president is free to walk in with his troubles, and most of them do. She tries to give an immediate answer to every question.

Part of the secret behind the great volume of work she turns out daily lies in her hours. She is at her Washington desk at 8:00 A.M., and usually doesn't leave till nearly seven at night. Her responsibilities make it necessary for her to travel extensively, too. Making the rounds of the New York designers' showings can be a grueling job, but she did it one year with a broken ankle-on crutches. Another time, with a mere sprain, she used canes. Two years ago, at sixty-eight, she gave up golf. "The hills got too high," she says.

"Lots of women get to the top by stepping on other people's faces," remarked a woman associate at Garfinckel's, "but Miss Fairall got there by hard work and ability."

Though gentle, she is decisive. The only time she was ever inarticulate was a year ago when she had laryngitis and couldn't speak a word. Even then she managed to dominate completely a meeting of 10 executives and buyers called to plan the store's handling of the New York clothes designed by Schiaparelli. She did it by nodding, and writing her ideas on slips of paper .

Miss Fairall's last gesture when she leaves the Washington store at night is to inspect the 23 windows, which are her special pride. It is from the comer window-at Fourteenth and F Streets - that many a $1 ,000 dress has been sold. "She can see a pin or a dead fly anywhere," says the display manager, who has followed her wishes for 39 years.

They tell of a Washington woman who had been ill for some weeks. The doctor said she could go out the next day, and asked her what she would like most to do. I'll just want my sister to take me down town," she said, "so I can look at the Garfinckel's windows."

When Elizabeth Fairall invaded Fifth Avenue last year she had the temerity to behead the mannequins in the De Pinna windows. She installed headless, legless and armless figures in the Garfinckel tradition, on the theory that the purpose of the windows is to sell goods, not fixtures. Window display managers along the Avenue, who prided themselves on elaborate decor, were thrown into a tizzy. Several were quoted in the trade press as predicting early failure for the innovation. One called it "snob appeal," the resort of a store that couldn't compete by normal means.

On the evening after the faceless figures were installed, Miss Fairall arrived by train from Washington, and held court informally on the De Pinna sidewalk at Fifty-second Street, receiving New York designers who had come to see the novelty.

A Concesson to Window Shoppers

The furor in the trade amused Miss Fairall. She pointed 10 De Pinna's rising sales of women's clothes as the complete answer. And she ordered enforcement of another Garfinckel rule, shocking to New York window artists: Take anything out of a window when a customer wants it, even if it's only a 50-cent. boutonniere.

In Paris, less experienced buyers follow her around and try to see -over her shoulder- which Dior, Fath or Balmain designs she is buying. Last year France, through Ambassador Henri Bonnet, made her a chevalier of the Legion of Honor for her long service in presenting French fashions to Washington.

She is quick to spot an innovation that will be popular, and to back it, This means daily decisions. "In retailing you have to accept changes," she says, "or you're out of business." Last fall she brought an entire collection of Pierre Balmain to the United States and showed it at White Sulphur Springs, Washington and New York. That had never been done before. Later she took a Paris & New York collection to Bermuda.

Usually not more than two of any top design are bought for Garfinckel's. Miss Fairall was horrified to learn, just before one Easter parade, that two of Washington's social leaders had bought the same dress, one of Christian Dior's New York collection. Warned by telephone, both said the didn't care.

On both sides of the counter Garfinckel's boasts names with social standing. On the customer side besides such Americans as Mme. Minister Perle Mesta, Gloria Swanson and Mrs. Dwight D. Eisenhower, there are Princess Amina Tousson of Egypt, now Mrs. Cornelius Bretsch, and Princess Tawhida Halim, also of Egypt, now Mrs. Frank Rediker. During World War II, Crown Princess Martha of Norway patronized the store.

Prince Dimitri Wolkonsky, whose father was a chamberlain to the court of Czar Nicholas II, a Garflnckel's staff photographer, and his wife, Princess Luba, used to sell Garfinckel hats. Mrs. Helen Wood, wife of Major General Walter A. Wood Jr., U.S.A. retired, is in chinaware at the main store, and Mrs. Margaret Collins MacDonald, sister of General J. Lawton Collins, Army Chief 0f Staff, is in millinery at the Spring Valley branch.

The Garflnckel staff of handsome young women models has been built up under Miss Fairall's injunction that 'we want a model to be like a member of your family, not a clotheshorse." A candidate must have the attributes of a lady, wear clothes with distinction, and be intelligent and well spoken. Several are Junior Leaguers, including Mrs. Seymour Owens, widow of a naval officer, J Carlota Pardini is the sister of a Panamanian diplomat. Two are wives of Air Force brigadier generals.

Most of the models are tall, in their early twenties, married and perfect 10s or 12s. They must have standard figures, as no alterations are made when dresses are shown. A Fairall fashion show as put on for charity at hotels and clubs in and Washington, is a major operation: Involved ma be 15 models, a fashion coordinator and two assistants, two or three maids, an interior decorator-and a woman detective.

Until she began spending half her time in New York, Miss Fairall personally passed on every Garfinckel complaint of importance. Many times she has sent a fitter 200 or 300 miles to adjust an error. Elizabeth Fairall was literally born into merchandising. Her father was a wholesale grocer in Baltimore and her maternal grandfather was proprietor of the general store at Accident, Maryland. She remembers being held up to get a full view of the splendid bustle worn by a niece of President Buchanan.

Bustles were going out by 1905, but skirts still literally swept the floor. Two weeks after he opened his Washington store, Julius Garfinckel hired Elizabeth Fairall as salesgirl. She waited on Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt and her daughter Ethel (later Mrs. Richard Derby) when they came over from the White House three blocks away. There followed Mrs. William Howard Taft (a lady with quiet but very definite tastes) ; the first and second Mrs. Woodrow Wilson and the Wilson daughters. Indeed, all the White House families-except, for some reason, the Hardings-have been Garfinckel customers.

Miss Fairall resents the tales about Calvin Coolidge being a pinchpenny. "So far as his wife's clothes went, he was the most open-handed President I've known about," she says. "I sold Mrs. Coolidge practically everything she wore in the White House, and in the President's mind nothing was too good for her." He used to window-shop on early-morning walks with the Secret Service men. Later Miss Fairall would receive a call from Mrs. Coolidge asking that a certain dress be sent over, as the President wanted to see it on her.

While Mrs. Coolidge was trying on a dress one day in the White House, the President appeared in a doorway behind her and held up a finger to the Garfinckel fitter for secrecy. Then he walked over quietly behind his wife, and spoke suddenly to her. She turned, and in dismay saw he was standing on the train of her new ball gown. Then she realized he had carefully removed his shoes.

In 1930, during the Hoover administration, Garfinckel's moved to its present nine- story building near the Treasury. Mrs. Hoover, who needed a new outfit, asked if she might be the first customer, and on the Saturday before the public opening Miss Fairall, a salesgirl and a fitter waited on her in the new building. On the following Monday each received a bouquet of red roses from the White House.

FDR's Fur-Lined Overcoat

She also recalls that the Garfinckel starter recognized Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt one day and offered her a special elevator , but the first lady waved it away and rode with the other customers. The young Roosevelts regularly shopped at the store. On Franklin D. Roosevelt's last Inauguration Day, although the store was closed, Garfinckel executives had to open the storage vaults to get out his fur-lined overcoat.

Margaret Truman went along recently while her mother was buying a Garfinckel hat. "Oh, don't pay any attention to me," she told the salespeople. "I'll just look around." And she did so, as naturally as if she had been in Independence, Missouri.

Garfinckel's third, or glamor, floor is Elizabeth Fairal1's particular concern. In Paris she may pay anywhere from $500 to $1,000 for original designs, but these are not sold to American customers, as the 90 per cent duty and the profit markup would make the price exorbitant. She brings them over in bond, displays them, and lends them to American manufacturers for copying and adaptation. The American version may be labeled "Original by Nath. Copy by Nanty."

Dresses, suits and furs created by New York designers or by the New York offices of French designers are, of course, bought for resale. By custom, the markup is uniform among the leading specialty houses throughout the country. The scale is a trade secret, but it's less than 50 per cent of the retail price.

Both these and the Paris copies may retail at anywhere from $89 to $1,000, depending on the type of garment, the material and other factors.

Standing in her office not long ago, Miss Fairall turned the pages of a book showing the awkwardly corseted figures of 1905. "I hate to think that I sold many of these atrocities," she said. "They're simply incredible.

Women's clothes become basically more utilitarian season after season," she continued. "This is proved by the demand for tailored suits, short cocktail dresses and 'separates.' Clothes must still be smart and have a great deal of style and beauty, but fundamentally they must be wearable and useful. Slim lines will continue, and skirts must be a becoming length. Women generally didn't like the long skirts of the New Look.

"In choosing a dress, suit or hat," she advises, "remember the important thing is what it will do for you. Judge it as part of you, not as it looks in a window or on a rack.

"If a model displays it, remember that she was probably chosen because she had a perfect figure, and almost anything looks well on a model. It takes a type, for instance, to wear an Adrian suit.

"Vertical stripes don't necessarily make you look thin, nor do horizontal stripes necessarily make you look plumper, as people used to think. It depends entirely on the way the designer handles the material.

"Texture and color are often more important than pattern. Avoid shiny materials if you're afraid you're getting stout. Satin makes a woman look larger than crepe. Generally a plump woman should avoid bright colors unless she's tall. Most women can wear any color they like by changing their make-up.

"Bring your husband along if he has veto power over your purchases. Besides, most men are good judges of fabrics.
"Deal with a reliable store that screens the merchandise and stands behind what it sells. If you're in a strange town and don't know a reliable store, ask for brand names you know. If there is no other way to judge goods, price is not a bad criterion. By and large, you get pretty much what you pay for, in style, wear and store service.

"And if you order by mail, send not only your shoe and dress sizes, but your weight and the color of your hair. Even if the store has facts about you on file, you keep changing."

Miss Fairall has deep sympathy for the bewildered male, and has always taught her salespeople not to oversell him. "When a garment is shown by a model," she warns men, "don't look at the girl. Think of the article on the recipient. You aren't taking the model home.

"Don't get flustered and pay more than you should. If it's for your wife, chances are she'll bring it back for something more sensible.

"Find out her size. The principal cause of exchanges is a man's tendency to look at the salesgirl, no matter what her height and weight are, and say, 'She's about your size.'

"And don't feel that you must always buy her perfume. Most women are just as fussy about the scent they wear as they are about their clothes. If you know her well, you know her interests and hobbies. Try something that will fit one of these. If you don't know her well, costume jewelry or a handbag is usually welcome."

W omen Are Taller and Thinner

Women are much easier to sell than ever before, Miss Fairall says, because they're clothes-conscious. Even if they're far from city shops they read the magazines. Also, they're getting taller and thinner. Fourteen and 16-misses' sizes are the most popular dress sizes today; 30 years ago the big demand was for more ample women's sizes.

The reason for the change, Miss Fairall says, is that "the modern woman simply won't let herself get fat."

Skirts, in Miss Fairall's opinion, should be between 13 and 16 inches from the floor, the exact distance depending on the wearer's height and weight. "A woman with beautiful legs can, of course, wear them much higher than her short, fat sisters,'. she added.

Elizabeth Fairall's counsel for young people planning a career like her own is to stay out of retailing unless they have patience and like hard work. As for herself, she has served notice that she will ignore Garfinckel's current attempts to put her on a five-day week, and that she isn't going to retire.

Do you have Garfinckels memorabilia you'd like to share? Old photos, advertisements, or catalogs? Any sort of historical documents are acceptible. Send your pictures (as electronic files) or links to the 8th Floor and we'll add them to this site.

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