Always window shopping, but never stopping to buy

In 1899, Herman Bergdorf arrived in New York from France and opened a tailor shop above Union Square in Manhattan.  He employed a young apprentice named Edwin Goodman and within two years, Goodman had raised enough money to purchase a share of the company.  

Under its new trading name, the original Bergdorf Goodman relocated to 32^nd Street, just west of the popular shopping district known as “Ladies’ Mile”.  The elder Bergdorf resisted the move to the noisy, popular locale and so he sold his interests in the company to his protégé and promptly retired to Paris – as you do.    

Less than 10 years later, Goodman relocated his company further uptown, to the site now occupied by Rockefeller Center.  He became the first couturier to introduce ready-to-wear, cementing Bergdorf Goodman’s reputation as the destination for American and French fashion in NYC.   

In early 1928 when construction was due to commence on the Rockefeller Center, Goodman purchased a new building on 5^th Avenue and East 58^th Street where the Vanderbilt family had once had their home.  Goodman must have been a Monopoly fiend because he designed his new store so it could be rented out to multiple tenants, which proved a winning strategy during the Great Depression.  During the 1930s, Goodman purchased the mortgages of all the surrounding businesses, and eventually acquired the whole block.  

When Goodman died in 1951, his son Andrew took over the business and under his leadership the store has expanded across the street (to house the menswear lines) and undergone substantial renovations in consultation with leading fashion houses around the world.  

Throughout the year – but especially at Christmas - the gorgeous Bergdorf Goodman store has the most opulent high fashion window displays in the city – furs, gems, sequins, and more! 

The magic of Bergdorf's has also been captured in a 2013 documentary called "Scatter My Ashes At Bergdorf's", which features celebrities and designers raving about the history and glamour of the NYC icon.