Clothing Company Definitions — United States clothing company definitions from Apparel Search
Spiegel is one of the best known direct marketing and catalog companies, started as a wareroom in downtown Chicago and later a $3 billion international, tri-channel specialty retailer. Its founder, German-born Joseph Spiegel, started a home furnishings company in Chicago just after the Civil War, mailed the first catalog in 1905, and by 1929 the company sold women's clothing as well as furniture through the mail.
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Spiegel's founder, the German-born Joseph Spiegel, started a home furnishings company in Chicago that would eventually become one of the most important firms in the mail-order industry, just after the Civil War. In 1904, Joseph and his son Arthur decided to move into mail order. The company mailed out its first catalog in 1905. 20 years later, it had over 10 million customers. By 1929, the Spiegel family's company (which by then sold women's clothing as well as furniture) was selling over $20 million in goods per year through the mail. A strategy of generous consumer credit, low prices, and high volume allowed Spiegel to accomplish the remarkable feat of expanding its operations during the Great Depression.
In 1982, Spiegel was bought by Michael Otto, who took it public in 1987. In March 2003, Spiegel Inc. filed for reorganization under the bankruptcy code. The next year, the Spiegel and Newport News catalog businesses were sold to a group headed by Golden Gate Capital Partners and Pangea Holdings Ltd., while the reorganizing company retained its Eddie Bauer unit and eventually assumed its name. Since 2004, Spiegel and the women's fashion catalog Newport News have operated under the name Spiegel Brands, Inc.
Spiegel once operated freestanding department stores.
The above definition about the clothing company Spiegel is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. The information source is from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and was originally obtained from the following page address (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/spiegel_catalog). The definition has been modified by the Apparel Search Company in June 2009. The rest of this page and other pages on Apparel Search are NOT under the free document license.
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Spiegel's endurance is the first fact to absorb. Started as a wareroom in downtown Chicago just after the Civil War by German-born Joseph Spiegel as a home furnishings company, it survived the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, two economic depressions and two world wars, in the definition's summary. A furnishings wareroom sold to customers who came in person; the transformation came in 1904, when Joseph and his son Arthur decided to move into mail order, mailing the first catalog in 1905. Twenty years later the company had over 10 million customers, a reach no single store could approach, achieved by printing and posting a shop that fit in a mailbox.
The growth formula is stated plainly: generous consumer credit, low prices and high volume. Credit was the revolutionary element for rural and working households, letting a family order furniture or clothing and pay over time, and it built loyalty as well as sales. By 1929 the Spiegel family company, which by then sold women's clothing as well as furniture, was selling over $20 million in goods per year through the mail. The move into women's clothing matters for fashion history, because catalogs carried current styles to towns with no fashion stores, with illustrations, fabric descriptions and size information doing the work of a salesperson.
In its later form, described in the definition, Spiegel was a $3 billion international, tri-channel specialty retailer. Tri-channel means selling through catalog, retail and online channels together, the stage direct marketers reached when the internet joined print and stores. A catalog company's skills transferred directly: remote product presentation, fulfilment, credit handling and customer databases were Spiegel's native disciplines long before e-commerce made them universal. That is why catalog houses belong in a clothing directory alongside store retailers and manufacturers: for much of the 20th century, they were how a large share of Americans actually bought clothes.
For researchers, the Spiegel record gives a dated spine for that history: a post-Civil War Chicago founding by Joseph Spiegel, survival through the 1871 fire, the 1904 mail-order decision and 1905 first catalog, 10 million customers within 20 years, $20 million in annual mail sales by 1929 with women's clothing in the range, and eventual scale as a $3 billion international specialty retailer. Few S entries connect so many eras of American retail in a single definition.
Spiegel's founder, German-born Joseph Spiegel, started a home furnishings company in Chicago just after the Civil War. The company started as a wareroom in downtown Chicago, survived the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, and moved into mail order in 1904.
Joseph and his son Arthur decided to move into mail order in 1904, and the company mailed out its first catalog in 1905. Twenty years later it had over 10 million customers.
A strategy of generous consumer credit, low prices and high volume allowed Spiegel to grow. By 1929 the family company, which by then sold women's clothing as well as furniture, was selling over $20 million in goods per year through the mail.