Bergdorf Goodman: The Heart of New York Glamour
Some places in New York don't really need an introduction.
You see the building, the yellow taxis passing outside, Central Park only steps away, and the effervescence of Fifth Avenue immediately catches you — and somehow you know exactly where you are.
Bergdorf Goodman is one of those places.
Standing proudly at Fifth Avenue and 58th Street, it has embodied the New York interpretation of luxury for generations: sophisticated, selective, and just theatrical enough to make walking through its doors feel like an occasion.
And when we visited Bergdorf Goodman ourselves, that sense of occasion was still very much there.
That may be why this particular New York landmark belongs in The Revival Journal.
Because behind its elegant windows lies not only a story of fashion - but a wonderful beauty story here too.
From Tailor's Shop to Fifth Avenue Institution
The story began far from the grand store we recognise today.
In 1899, Edwin Goodman began working for Herman Bergdorf, an Alsatian-born tailor with a business in downtown Manhattan. Goodman eventually bought the business, retained the Bergdorf name and began transforming it into something considerably more ambitious.
By 1914, Bergdorf Goodman had become an important destination for American and French fashion, and in 1928 the store moved to its present Fifth Avenue location.
The address itself came with pedigree.
The new Bergdorf Goodman rose on the former site of the mansion belonging to Cornelius Vanderbilt II, one of the great symbols of America's Gilded Age.
A Vanderbilt mansion becoming one of New York's most glamorous stores seems almost too perfect.
Luxury had changed address.
Where New York Society Shopped
Bergdorf Goodman wasn't built to be a generic Department Store.
But it built a reputation for selectivity, service, and an extraordinarily sophisticated clientele.
By the middle of the twentieth century, shopping there had become woven into the rituals of wealthy New York society.
In 1951, when the store celebrated its golden anniversary, Time described Whitneys, Sloans and Rockefellers among the hundreds attending the celebration at the Plaza Hotel.
And then Jacqueline Kennedy walked in.
During her White House years, Jackie corresponded with her Bergdorf Goodman personal shopper, sending requests and even ideas for hats and shoes. The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library today preserves a fascinating collection of Bergdorf pieces associated with her, including Halston hats.
Years later, another woman accustomed to rather grand wardrobes became a regular customer:
Diana, Princess of Wales.
That history is wonderfully evocative.
Imagine Fifth Avenue decades ago: a chauffeur waiting outside, hatboxes and garment bags being carried through the doors, personal shoppers who knew their clients' wardrobes almost as intimately as the women themselves.
Shopping at its most elevated ritual.
And Then Came Ten Lipsticks
For beauty lovers, however, one of our favourite Bergdorf Goodman stories begins much later.
February 1991.
Makeup artist Bobbi Brown had become frustrated with the cosmetics she encountered while working professionally.
The 1980s had celebrated conspicuous makeup: strong contour, pale faces, vivid colour.
Bobbi wanted something different.
She wanted lipstick that looked like lips—only better.
Working with a chemist, she first created Brown Lip Colour, then developed nine additional wearable shades around the same philosophy.
Ten Lip Colours.Simple.Flattering.Modern.It was, in its own quiet way, a revolution in a bullet.
Bergdorf Goodman picked up the challenge.
Bobbi and her team prepared the counter and were there for the opening day, expected to sell perhaps 100 lipsticks during the first month.
They sold 100 on the first day.
Something had clearly struck a chord.
Women wanted a lipstick colour that worked with the face they already had.
From those ten little lipsticks, grew one of the most influential beauty brands of the decades that followed.
And it began at a counter inside Bergdorf Goodman.
Beauty, the Bergdorf Way
There is something particularly appropriate about Bobbi Brown beginning there.
Bergdorf Goodman has always understood that luxury isn't simply about price.
It's about curation.
Part of the pleasure lies in discovering something selected because somebody believes it deserves to be there.
That philosophy works beautifully with cosmetics.
A lipstick counter can be an ordinary retail fixture.
Or it can be the place where a woman discovers the colour she will wear for the next ten years.
A fragrance department can sell bottles.
Or it can introduce someone to a scent that will forever remind her of New York.
Beauty is full of those tiny, surprisingly emotional discoveries.
And department stores historically provided the stage for many of them.
A Personal New York Moment
This may also be why Bergdorf Goodman stayed with us after our own visit.
Department stores exist in almost every major city, but some buildings retain the personality of the place around them.
Bergdorf feels unmistakably New York.
Step outside and Fifth Avenue is waiting.
Central Park is just beyond.
The Plaza sits nearby.
And inside is more than a century of fashion, beauty, personalities and stories.
The Lost Art of Browsing
Another reason we're rather fond of places like Bergdorf Goodman.
Modern shopping has become extraordinarily efficient.
We've lost something along the way.
The great department stores offered another kind of pleasure: wandering without knowing exactly what you wanted.
Trying a lipstick because its colour caught your eye, smelling a perfume because the bottle looked beautiful.
Running a hand over a silk scarf.
Looking at an extravagant dress you had absolutely no intention of buying.
And leaving with nothing more than inspiration.
There's something delightfully vintage about that.
If You Visit Today
Bergdorf Goodman remains at its famous Fifth Avenue home in Manhattan.
Even if a shopping spree isn't on the itinerary, its windows alone are part of the New York experience—particularly during the holiday season.
And for beauty lovers, something special: somewhere in this famous store, in February 1991, ten modest-looking lipsticks appeared on sale.
Sometimes beauty revolutions arrive with enormous advertising campaigns.
And sometimes, they start with a new lipstick.
Photography: Glitzy Revival. Contemporary photographs and photographs of archival displays were taken during our recent visit to Bergdorf Goodman, New York.