Jason English
Mall Trivia
by Jason English - April 9, 2007 - 11:39 AM

Next weekend, my wife and I are heading back to our alma mater. It’s her five-year reunion, and we’re using the occasion as an excuse to buy new jeans and footwear and first novels about investment banking.

While we shopped, my mind wandered. Was there really an Ann Taylor? Brothers Brooks? A Mr. Gap? An O. Julius?

Here’s what I learned:

anntaylor1.jpgStriking out on his own from the family business, founder Richard Liebeskind, opened his own retail shop for increasingly busy women. As a gift, Mr. Liebeskind, Sr., himself a designer, gave his son exclusive rights to one of his best-selling dress models, which at that time were often “named.” This particular dress, the “Ann Taylor,” embodied the classic, confident style of the well-dressed woman.

BrooksBrothers.gif

In 1818, Henry Sands Brooks opened H. & D.H. Brooks & Co. on the Northeast corner of Catherine and Cherry Streets in New York City, where the South Street Seaport now stands. In 1850, Brooks’s grandsons Daniel, John, and Elisha inherited the family business, and renamed the company Brooks Brothers.

Gap.gifThe Gap was founded in San Francisco in 1969 by Donald Fisher and Doris Fisher. The name was derived from the growing differences between children and adults — namely “the generation gap” — which reached its peak with the hippie movement.

stor_bailey.jpgWith $28 worth of jeweler’s tools, two American silversmiths created what was to become one of the country’s preeminent fine jewelers, Bailey Banks & Biddle. The Bailey Banks & Biddle name was established in 1878 when partners George W. Banks and Samuel Biddle joined forces with Eli Wescot Bailey, who had taken over the business after his brother, Joseph, passed away.

orange-julius.jpg And there wasn’t an O. Julius, but there was a Julius Freed. More on this tomorrow.

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Comments (12)

  1. I hope someone can back me up on this but in the very early 1970′s

    posted by Jane on 4-9-2007 at 12:04 pm

  2. I hope someone can back me up on this but in the very early 1970′s GAP was known as ‘The Home of the $5 Dollar Jeans”. (well that has certainly changed)

    posted by Jane on 4-9-2007 at 12:05 pm

  3. I don’t remember the $5.00 Jeans but I do remember that was where we got our Levi’s, and the Ad’s jingle was “Fall into the Gap”

    posted by CropTillDawn on 4-9-2007 at 5:29 pm

  4. But I want to know, What is Victoria’s Secret?

    posted by Mainiac on 4-9-2007 at 5:37 pm

  5. Crop – yes I remember the ‘Fall into the Gap’ jingle well. It came after the Home of the $5 Jeans and knowing that makes me old.

    posted by Jane on 4-10-2007 at 6:53 am

  6. I may be mistaken, but I believe Ralph Lauren himself worked for Brooks Brothers before branching off on his own with a line of men’s ties.

    posted by Danielle on 4-12-2007 at 2:37 pm

  7. It’s simple. Victoria’s secret is that she is a man, baby.

    posted by Brian on 4-12-2007 at 6:32 pm

  8. The “Home of the $5 Jeans” was “In Jeans.” Ah, yes. I remember it well. When they had their Grand Opening in Fair Lawn, N.J., “Cousin” Bruce Morrow was the attraction. He was giving away albums by Chicago.

    posted by Gale on 4-14-2007 at 3:43 pm

  9. I remember a chain called Pants Galore in the 1970s…their jingle was “Pants Galore, the five dollar store….” They sold jeans and cords for $5 a pair.

    posted by Jill on 4-19-2007 at 10:45 am

  10. I have a bag from Pants Galore, from the 70′s that I framed. It came as packing in a box from a business in Baton Rouge LA. I unwrinkled it, being curious as I am, and this lovely bag opened up and I immediately had to frame it, I can send pics if ya want to see it.

    posted by Donny on 12-15-2010 at 10:23 pm

  11. @ Donny – I used to work at Pants Galore in Westwood Village in 1973!!!!Please send pic of the bag. How cool that would have that. No one I know remembers that store at all!

    posted by mari burns on 1-5-2011 at 1:55 pm

  12. Mary find me on Facebook Donny Trahan

    posted by Donny TRahan on 11-17-2011 at 7:08 am

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