Spiegel History
Earlier company descriptions, brand line-ups, store counts and photographs from the history of Spiegel, kept for historical reference.
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The Company Description of Its Time
Spiegel was one of the founding names of American mail order. Joseph Spiegel founded the company in Chicago in 1865 as a home-furnishings business, and Spiegel mailed its first catalog to women across America in 1905; just twenty years later, the fashion and furniture retailer counted 10 million customers. As their desire grew for the latest fashions, Spiegel sent buyers to the Paris fashion shows - the first catalog, its record claims, to bring European trends to American homes. By the late 1970s, as millions of women began stepping up the corporate ladder, Spiegel changed to meet their needs, building the wardrobe-building catalog - private-label women's clothing, footwear and accessories 'to create easy style' - that defined the brand for its loyal customers.
Bankruptcy, Spiegel Brands and the Final Chapter: 2003-2019
In 2003 Spiegel filed for bankruptcy protection and reorganization. The following year a group headed by Golden Gate Capital Partners and Pangea Holdings Ltd. purchased the Spiegel and Newport News catalog businesses, while the reorganizing company retained its Eddie Bauer unit and eventually assumed that name. From 2004 the Spiegel and Newport News catalogs operated as Spiegel Brands, Inc.; in 2008 Spiegel was sold to an investment group led by Granite Creek Partners, and in June 2009 it became a Lynn Tilton company, sold to the private equity fund Patriarch Partners and operated as Spiegel LLC - doing business from 2009 to 2012 as Signature Styles, LLC and Artemiss LLC. In 2012 the leadership was replaced and the creative direction shifted to digital media.
The digital pivot did not save it. Spiegel ceased operations in 2019, its website removed without notice, closing a 154-year run that began with a Chicago furniture store and a catalog that taught America to shop from its armchairs. This profile keeps the record as recorded - the Paris buyers, the 10 million customers, the wardrobe-building promise - because Spiegel's customers were, in its own words, 'as ageless as the brand.'
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