Word: ohrbach
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Died. Nathan Ohrbach, 87, founder of the retail clothing chain that made low prices yield high profits; in Manhattan. Ohrbach grew up in Brooklyn, and began selling women's coats from rented space in a friend's hat shop. He opened his first large store in 1923 on the sound principle that women love bargains. Anticipating the methods that later created a discount merchandising boom, Ohrbach stocked items that would move fast and attract crowds. He also sold low-priced copies of Paris originals, but provided a personal touch by greeting shoppers at the door...
...hips but swell to bell-bottoms as much as five feet in circumference. The flowing material is often draped so widely that from a distance the eye cannot distinguish between a woman in a long gown and a woman in palazzos. Says Irene Satz, of Manhattan's Ohrbach's department store: "They don't look like pants, but they...
Manhattan stores such as Bonwit Teller, Lord & Taylor and Ohrbach's have also been advertising the midi lustily, and more directly. Proclaimed Ohrbach's: "THE KNEE is DEAD...
...with the changing times and mood of the consumer." Saks Fifth Avenue, Macy's and Alexander's have dropped their import copies. Lord & Taylor plans to continue its reproductions in different fabrics. But the only Manhattan department store still actually duplicating the Paris collections this season is Ohrbach's, and skeptics doubt that it will hold the line-for-line line much longer...
Midis already account for close to 5% of the dresses currently in stock in most U.S. stores, and French and Italian copies (most of them long-line Valentinos) filtering in this month are pushing minis even farther back on the racks. Last week Ohrbach's ushered in an import collection of 50 styles, each and every one the long length. For Seventh Avenue, the midi could be the answer to every merchant's prayers-a way out of the current buying slump. If midis catch on, they could bolster business by more than 30% this year...