Neiman Marcus to Turn Out the Lights on 110-Year-Old Party

Yahoo

28-03-2025

Long ago and far away, there was a store. The Store, as it was known then, and still is, at least among those of us lucky enough to have grown up in and around it. It was ours, it was magic, and in two days it will be gone.
At the corner of Main Street and Ervay in downtown Dallas, Neiman Marcus rose like a crenellated confection, nine stories of retail romance and aesthetic allure. Having occupied that site since 1914, The Store survived no shortage of challenges in the years since then—among them the assassination of John F. Kennedy in November 1963, a few blocks away; a crippling fire in December 1964, days before Christmas; and, beginning in 1969, a slew of different owners who expanded the brand to national and then global prominence before, in recent years, whittling it down to a shadow of its former self. Never has that shadow seemed smaller.
Saks Global, the current parent company of Neiman Marcus (and of Saks Fifth Avenue), has decreed the closure of the iconic downtown store, the capital of a retail empire that once seemed invincible, a synonym for postwar American elegance, with outposts from Coral Gables to Beverly Hills. But to Dallasites, this is a blow that strikes at the heart. There is no question that Neiman Marcus was the best of us—and not just Neiman Marcus the concept or Neiman Marcus the brand, which will continue, but Neiman Marcus the original, literal store, with its marble, its carpets, and, most of all, its history. It is impossible to conceive of Dallas without it, and yet we will have to.
In recent years major development projects have changed the landscape of downtown Dallas, whose skyline used to resemble an outcropping of weeds on an endless expanse of plains. These days an area that was once strictly commercial—and a ghost town after 6 p.m.—is now proudly residential, home to glassy condominiums, soaring skyscrapers, and world class art museums.
The closure doesn't necessarily undercut the continued development of downtown, but in a city that was always, in the classic way of the American west, deeply hostile to history, The Store shutting its doors takes away one of the few landmarks that made Dallas distinct and that gave it its personality. Now downtown Dallas might as well be downtown anywhere, another improbable American explosion of concrete and chrome ruled only by Resy and Range Rovers.
Dallas native Karen Katz was CEO of Neiman Marcus for more than a decade after joining the company as an assistant general manager in 1985. 'When I grew up in Dallas, the Neiman Marcus downtown store was a beacon of fashion and style,' she said. 'I eagerly awaited the annual Fortnight celebrations held there.' Sandy Marple started at The Store in 1969 and retired in 2019, ending her half-century of service as VP of Special Events. The news that the downtown Neiman's would soon close was gutting. 'I was heartbroken,' she said. 'It's hard to divorce the place from the people that were in it.'
When the news was announced, city officials sprang into action to try to prevent the loss of the beloved landmark, even securing the deed from a landowner who controlled a small portion of the ground underneath the legendary emporium. Not having that lease was the reason Saks Global had given for why the legendary building had to close, and then, almost overnight, the problem was solved. But Saks Global then insisted that the downtown store would shut its doors anyway. 'Our decision to close the Neiman Marcus Downtown Dallas store is final, and we are moving forward as such,' the conglomerate said in a statement. Barring some unforeseen divine intervention, The Store is set to close on March 31.
'That building is so much more than just a piece of architecture,' said Ken Downing, who was fashion director of Neiman Marcus for years. 'It is a little bit like Queen Elizabeth—she was always there, and Neiman Marcus was always there. When downtown Dallas flourished, when downtown Dallas was less favorable, you could always count on that beautiful moment when you walked in and Chanel No. 5 wafted through the doorways.'
The story of Neiman Marcus is ultimately the story of a family, and really the story of one member of that family in particular—the inimitable Stanley Marcus, the so-called 'merchant prince' of retail and an aesthete for the ages. 'Mr. Stanley,' as he was known by virtually the entire city of Dallas, built Neiman Marcus into the sui generis retail establishment it became. The downtown store was his canvas, his laboratory, his Xanadu.
In 1907 Stanley's father Herbert Marcus, alongside his aunt Carrie Marcus Neiman and Carrie's husband Al Neiman, founded what became Neiman Marcus in downtown Dallas, albeit in a different location. The Store, as Stanley was fond of saying, was founded on pure 'bad judgment.'
The family's first foray into business, in sales promotion in Atlanta, had been so successful that it landed them with two offers: $25,000 in cash or a statewide franchise for a strange new product called Coca-Cola. The Marcuses took the cash, came home to Dallas, and opened their store. They were Jews in the segregated South, and they dreamed of a better, more beautiful world. So they built one.
It was quite a gamble—for one thing, Dallas was not yet oil rich in 1907, and the average customer did not have the bottomless resources from 'black gold' that would later define the Texan caricature. This was a city of cotton and cattle, with not so obvious a clientele. Besides, Dallas at the time was dominated by other retailers, such as Sanger Brothers, Titche-Goettinger, and A. Harris & Co.
On September 8, 1907, the Dallas Morning News ran a full-page advertisement announcing the opening of a 'New and Exclusive Shopping Place for Fashionable Women.' The young founders promised, 'We will be known as the Store of Quality and Superior Values. We shall be hypercritical in our selections. Only the finest productions of the best garment makers are good enough for us.'
Of course, the rise of Neiman Marcus was not without its struggles, including within the family. Carrie Neiman, the founding matriarch, divorced her philandering husband Al in 1928, which was nothing less than a scandal at that time. Al left the firm, and it was Carrie, who never remarried, who was truly responsible for establishing The Store's particular reputation for refinement.
Almost always in a simple black frock and a single strand of pearls, Carrie was a rare character, an independent woman and business owner at a time when she had hardly any peers. What's more, she became the store's first buyer, traveling alone to New York, Paris, and London, which she scoured for the finest creations of silk, taffeta, and cashmere, all of which she brought back to Dallas, where they sold out almost instantly.
When the original 50-foot storefront on the corner of Elm and Murphy streets burned to the ground in 1913, the Marcuses needed a new, bigger store, so they moved to Main and Ervay. It was there that Stanley built what can only be described as a total work of art. Yes, it sold suits, wedding dresses, and silver tea sets, like any number of department stores across the country, but to describe Neiman Marcus as a 'department store' would be to miss the point: This was a place one came to not only to shop but also to dream about what life could be, what fanciful flights it might take, what spectacular joy it might one day bring.
Neiman Marcus was one of the first retail establishments to invest in a serious art collection, an endeavor that began in 1951 when Stanley bought Mariposa, a mobile by Alexander Calder. The Neiman Marcus Art Collection eventually included canvases by Fernand Léger and Georges Braque, which were displayed on the walls behind merchandise that Texas, and even the United States, had never before seen. Neiman Marcus was the first American retailer to carry Missoni and Elsa Schiaparelli and one of the first to carry Emilio Pucci.
In 1957, from his office on the executive floor of the downtown store, Mr. Stanley planned and painstakingly orchestrated the first of his legendary 'Fortnights,' carnivals of art and fashion that were typically themed as love letters to foreign cultures. The first was dedicated to his beloved France, and the guest of honor was none other than Coco Chanel, who famously scraped her baked beans onto the red satin slippers of Elizabeth Arden at Stanley's ranch outside Dallas. Although full of stars and celebrities, the Fortnights also had another purpose.
'I've always believed there was a bit of Walt Disney in Stanley,' Downing said. 'Were the Fortnights a ­business-generating idea? Absolutely. But they were also a gift back to the city, a way of bringing culture to those who didn't necessarily have the means to get to it themselves. Can't get to France? No problem, we'll bring France to them.'
These days terms like innovation, authenticity, and customer engagement are thrown around in the retail business so frequently that they mean nothing. But Stanley Marcus's store truly was a font of innovation, and he perfected many of the things that today define experiential retail. Chief among these was the in-store fashion show, which he promoted as early as the 1940s. Then there was the restaurant, the famed Zodiac, a fine dining establishment headed by Helen Corbitt, arguably the country's first celebrity chef. 'He was building a community when no one used that language,' Downing said. 'The store was a community wherever it opened its doors.'
'It was always filled with beautiful products from around the world,' Katz said. 'But the real source of the store's magic and inspiration were the relationships between our hardworking sales team and their wonderful customers, the dedication of the buyers and suppliers who worked there, and the glamour of world famous designers who visited.'
A particularly memorable moment was the 2013 visit of Karl Lagerfeld, Anna Wintour, and André Leon Talley to the downtown store, where Lagerfeld received the Neiman Marcus Award for Distinguished Service in the Field of Fashion, which Stanley and Carrie had established in 1938. The same prize has, over the years, gone to Christian Dior, Coco Chanel, and Miuccia Prada. All of them came to the downtown store to claim their award, some of them long before Dallas became the sprawling city it is today.
Loyal customers too cling to relationships they made at Neiman Marcus, which played an important social role in the city. The Zodiac, in particular, was a meeting ground for families, often across generations, even for those who wanted only the famous consommé and popovers with strawberry butter. 'Our family cherishes the memories we've made—savoring meals in the Zodiac Room, shopping for special moments, and, most importantly, building quality and lasting friendships at the store,' said Jennifer Dix, the elected chair of the Crystal Charity Ball, a major event on the Dallas social calendar.
The thing about being from Dallas is that no matter who you are or what your family did, you remember going to Neiman's with your grandmother. Mine loved the Pucci and the strawberry soft-serve. In the old days everyone, truly everyone, came into The Store during Christmastime—to take a photo with Santa or to admire the decorations. For years Neiman Marcus even sponsored the Dallas Holiday Parade, the city's largest single-day outdoor event.
But more than the temple of a bygone era, The Store was a pillar of the community, the closest thing to a piazza that Dallas ever had. In a city of highways and suburban sprawl, it was one of the few places where the different factions of society actually came into contact with one another. It should come as no surprise that, in the 1950s and '60s, Mr. Stanley was an early advocate for desegregation, far earlier than the rest of the Dallas elite. Neiman Marcus opened its doors to all customers before they were welcome at most other places. The legacy of The Store is that story, too. To close it down is to close a window not only into what Dallas once was but into what it might still be.
Whether it becomes offices or condos, the downtown store is destined to become a relic of a glorious past. As Katz put it, 'Ultimately, the Neiman Marcus Downtown store will continue to live in the memories of generations of customers, employees, and visitors.' They really were beautiful memories while they lasted.You Might Also Like
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