Welcome to the Tailored Woman

A native of Nashville, Eugene K. Denton moved to New York to found the Tailored Woman women’s specialty store in 1919. The original location was on Fifth Avenue on part of the site that later became Rockefeller Center. In 1939 the store moved to its final location on the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street, in the building now owned by Bergdorf Goodman. Denton helped establish that intersection as a retail mecca, made iconic by Tiffany & Co., which moved to the southeast corner in 1940. The Tailored Woman closed its doors in 1969. Upon his death in 1988, Denton was christened “the Dean of Retail Trade on Fifth Avenue” in a New York Times obituary.

Denton was also an accomplished breeder of Aberdeen Angus cattle. My father remembers watching the Arthur Godfrey show one night, and there came “Uncle Gene” parading a prizewinning steer on set. While I never knew my great-granduncle, that anecdote seems perfectly to capture his personality, along with a hint of lost glamour that has compelled me to research the store and share my findings online.

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Helpful Hint from The New Yorker

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A Plaza Tale

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I've heard from a number of people who remember the Tailored Woman store and its mercurial owner, Eugene K. Denton .  I received the following message a few months ago from Diana Pons, who gave me permission to share her story. My father, Victor Pons, was the maitre d' of the Oak Room at The Plaza Hotel on 59th Street and Fifth Avenue, just steps from The Tailored Woman. I am writing a book about my father's years at The Plaza (1953-1973) and the many experiences he, and I, had there. I was trying to remember when The Tailored Woman closed. I just Googled the store's name and I found your web site! My father's years at The Plaza reflect my life from age 6 to 26. Your great-great-granduncle (Eugene K. Denton) came often to the Oak Room. He liked my father very much, and my father liked him. When I was 18 (that would be 1965), I was looking for a summer job. My father asked him if he needed help in the store. He gave me a job for the summer in the accounting dep
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