From pageboy at Bonwit Teller to CEO of Bergdorf Goodman, Ira Neimark crossed Fifth Avenue unlike anyone else.
Christmas 1938, when he began working at Bonwit Teller on 56th Street, he had just turned 17. Mary Martin, the toast of Broadway, sang at Bonwit’s exclusive 721 Club Christmas cocktail party where young Ira, in a snug bellhop uniform, greeted the rich and famous.
Four decades later, as the new CEO of Bergdorf Goodman, he transformed the store from an “old, dull, expensive and intimidating store,” into a “young, exciting expensive and intimidating store” that became first in luxury and glamour. Among his stunning achievements: the reintroduction of the Paris couture in the United States, unique showcasing great Italian and French designers, developing the best new Americans—and parties featuring haute couture that lit the spark for Bergdorf’s revival.
Crossing Fifth Avenue to Bergdorf Goodman captures the magic of fashion retailing at its most dramatic moments, as well as the lessons learned that made Ira Neimark a legendary success in the business. It is replete with intriguing, personal stories about famous people known around the world, among them Princess Diana, Salvador Dali, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Donald Trump, and Margaret Thatcher. And there are insights into the art and business of fashion that only an insider could give in the stories about Giorgio Armani, Geoffrey Beene, Bill Blass, Carla Fendi, Oscar de la Renta, Perry Ellis, Massimo Ferragamo, James Galanos, Hubert Givenchy, Calvin Klein, Estée Lauder, Ralph Lauren, Mary McFadden, Charles Revson, Pauline Trigere, and many more.
Only Ira Neimark could tell these stories and articulate the business lessons that made him the “last man standing” among the greats of fashion retailing—lessons that continue to compel major multi-national companies to seek his counsel.