Peck & Peck

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Peck & Peck
LocationNew York, U.S.
CoordinatesCoordinates: 40°45′25″N 73°58′42″W / 40.75682°N 73.97826°W / 40.75682; -73.97826
Address581 Fifth Avenue
Opening date1888 (1888)
Closing dateJanuary 1991 (1991-01)
Goods soldClothes

Peck & Peck was a New York-based retailer of private label women's wear prominently located at 581 Fifth Avenue.[1]

Peck & Peck was known for its classic clothes. Like Bonwit Teller and B. Altman and Company's post–World War II fashions, Peck & Peck personified and flourished in the pre-hippie era in New York[2] when WASP fashion ruled stores and fashion magazines.[3]

To writers like Joan Didion, Peck & Peck was descriptor and shorthand for a certain fashion look.[4] A store classic was the simple A-line dress.

History[]

Founded by Edgar Wallace Peck and his brother George H. Peck,[5] it began in New York in 1888[6] as a hosiery store, with an early location near Madison Square.[7] At Edgar Peck's death, Time magazine reported that the brothers once had to pay rent every 24 hours to a distrusting landlord,[8] but now had 19 stores.[9] It grew to 78 stores across the United States.

Peck & Peck filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1974[10] and was purchased in 1976 by the Minneapolis-based retailing company Salkin & Linoff.[11] Through a combination of poor management and widely decentralized locations, the chain was basically shut down and sold off in pieces.[11] Some specific store locations of the chain were sold by Salkin & Linoff in the mid/late 1980s to H. C. Prange Co. of Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Salkin & Linoff closed their last five stores in January 1991, and the assets were sold at a bankruptcy sale.[11]

Other fashion retailers that grew in the wake of the closure of Peck & Peck were Ann Taylor and Talbots. Since 2008, the Peck & Peck trademark is owned by Stein Mart for its line of woman's clothing.

References[]

  1. ^ "581 Fifth Ave". WhatWasThere. Enlighten Ventures, LLC. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  2. ^ Book review on In The Place To Be by Guy Trebay. ISBN 1-56639-208-X
  3. ^ Gadfly Online article detailing Peck & Peck's devotion to White Anglo-Saxon Protestants
  4. ^ Essay titled On Keeping a Notebook by Joan Didion Archived 2008-08-07 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ NYT Wedding Notice of Dorothy Peck, granddaughter of founder
  6. ^ Search on Peck & Peck Trademark Registration
  7. ^ Essay titled Fifth Avenue - The Best Address by Jerry E. Patterson
  8. ^ "Milestones", Time, November 5, 1928
  9. ^ Milestones Time magazine column noting Edgar Peck's 1928 death
  10. ^ Barmash, Isadore (July 23, 1974). "71-Store Peck & Peck Seeking Reorganization". The New York Times. Retrieved September 16, 2018.
  11. ^ a b c "Salkin & Linoff". St. Louis Park Historical Society. Retrieved September 16, 2018.

External links[]

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