New York & Company History
Earlier company descriptions, brand line-ups, store counts and photographs from the history of New York & Company, kept for historical reference.
← Back to the current New York & Company profile
The Company Description of Its Time
This page is kept as a dated profile with a renaming at its head. Announced on September 11, 2018, New York & Company will be changing their name to RTW Retailwinds, and the kept link from this page leads to the RTW Retailwinds filing in the R section, which is where the company's story continues in this directory. The profile beneath the announcement describes the business under its long-held name: New York & Company, founded in 1918, a leading specialty retailer of fashion-oriented, moderately-priced women's apparel, serving customers for over 90 years at its filing date.
The Customer, Described by Her Life
The historical profiles its customer by circumstances rather than by measurements. She is between the ages of 25 to 45, raising a family or planning to, looking for affordable, chic clothing, career minded, and living an active social life. That list explains the assortment that follows: a great range of casual and wear-to-work apparel and accessories, including pants, jackets, knit tops, blouses, sweaters, denim, t-shirts, activewear, handbags and jewelry, with ranges from wear-to-work to casual, proportion cut pants in Petite, Average and Tall, denim, jewelry, accessories, and a Bath and Body Collection.
The merchandising claim attached to that assortment is price position: current fashions fulfilling a broad spectrum of lifestyle and wardrobe needs at price points typically below department and specialty store peers. Rapidly becoming synonymous with modern, sexy style is the filing's own summary of the brand's ambition, fashionable, attractively priced women's apparel featuring the latest must-have trends for every season. Read plainly, the offer is trend speed at a moderate price for a working customer whose wardrobe has to cover office, family and social life from one rail, which is why wear-to-work leads the category list.
From a 1918 Name to RTW Retailwinds
A century separates the two names on this page. The 1918 founding gave the company a name that borrowed the authority of its home city, and for over ninety years that name fronted a national chain built on proprietary women's apparel. The 2018 announcement replaced the storefront name at the corporate level with RTW Retailwinds, a parent-company identity under which individual brands could sit, and the directory recorded the change the way it records all such transitions: at the head of the old profile, with a route onward to the new filing, rather than by erasing the name researchers still search for.
That preservation choice matters because store names outlive corporate names in public memory. Shoppers who bought wear-to-work clothing under the New York & Company fascia will search this name, and this page answers with both halves of the record: what the chain was, in its own 2009 store count and customer description, and what its parent announced it would become in September 2018. For the successor company's current information, continue to the RTW Retailwinds profile through the kept link. This page keeps the historical profile intact, figures and dates attached to their years.
Photos
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References & Further Reading
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