Shopping Seduction Mr Selfridge

Download or read book Shopping, Seduction & Mr. Selfridge written by Lindy Woodhead and published by Random House. This book was released on 2013-02-12 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If you lived at Downton Abbey, you shopped at Selfridge’s. Harry Gordon Selfridge was a charismatic American who, in twenty-five years working at Marshall Field’s in Chicago, rose from lowly stockboy to a partner in the business which his visionary skills had helped to create. At the turn of the twentieth century he brought his own American dream to London’s Oxford Street where, in 1909, with a massive burst of publicity, Harry opened Selfridge’s, England’s first truly modern built-for-purpose department store. Designed to promote shopping as a sensual and pleasurable experience, six acres of floor space offered what he called “everything that enters into the affairs of daily life,” as well as thrilling new luxuries—from ice-cream soda to signature perfumes. This magical emporium also featured Otis elevators, a bank, a rooftop garden with an ice-skating rink, and a restaurant complete with orchestra—all catering to customers from Anna Pavlova to Noel Coward. The store was “a theatre, with the curtain going up at nine o’clock.” Yet the real drama happened off the shop floor, where Mr. Selfridge navigated an extravagant world of mistresses, opulent mansions, racehorses, and an insatiable addiction to gambling. While his gloriously iconic store still stands, the man himself would ultimately come crashing down. The true story that inspired the Masterpiece series on PBS • Mr. Selfridge is a co-production of ITV Studios and Masterpiece “Enthralling . . . [an] energetic and wonderfully detailed biography.”—London Evening Standard “Will change your view of shopping forever.”—Vogue (U.K.)

Download or read book Shopping, Seduction & Mr. Selfridge written by Lindy Woodhead and published by Random House Trade Paperbacks. This book was released on 2013-02-12 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If you lived at Downton Abbey, you shopped at Selfridge’s. Harry Gordon Selfridge was a charismatic American who, in twenty-five years working at Marshall Field’s in Chicago, rose from lowly stockboy to a partner in the business which his visionary skills had helped to create. At the turn of the twentieth century he brought his own American dream to London’s Oxford Street where, in 1909, with a massive burst of publicity, Harry opened Selfridge’s, England’s first truly modern built-for-purpose department store. Designed to promote shopping as a sensual and pleasurable experience, six acres of floor space offered what he called “everything that enters into the affairs of daily life,” as well as thrilling new luxuries—from ice-cream soda to signature perfumes. This magical emporium also featured Otis elevators, a bank, a rooftop garden with an ice-skating rink, and a restaurant complete with orchestra—all catering to customers from Anna Pavlova to Noel Coward. The store was “a theatre, with the curtain going up at nine o’clock.” Yet the real drama happened off the shop floor, where Mr. Selfridge navigated an extravagant world of mistresses, opulent mansions, racehorses, and an insatiable addiction to gambling. While his gloriously iconic store still stands, the man himself would ultimately come crashing down. The true story that inspired the Masterpiece series on PBS • Mr. Selfridge is a co-production of ITV Studios and Masterpiece “Enthralling . . . [an] energetic and wonderfully detailed biography.”—London Evening Standard “Will change your view of shopping forever.”—Vogue (U.K.)

Download or read book Selfridge written by Fergus Mason and published by BookCaps Study Guides. This book was released on 2014-06-06 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Just for a moment try to put every shopping trip you’ve ever made out of your head. Imagine a different world. Imagine that all the goods for sale are locked away in cabinets and to handle them, or even to examine them closely, you need to ask a shop assistant to open it up for you. Imagine that within seconds of entering a store a floorwalker approaches you and asks if you’re planning to buy something – then, when you say “I’m just looking,” rudely tells you to leave. Imagine any attempt to return faulty or unsuitable goods being met with ridicule, obstruction or a flat refusal to help you. Until the late 19th century people didn’t have to imagine that; it was reality. For anyone alive today a visit to the average store back then would convince you that they didn’t really want to sell you anything. The idea of customer service was an alien one. Stores sold things. If you wanted to buy them, fine. If you didn’t they weren’t really interested. Browsing was strongly discouraged and impulse buys were almost unheard of. Shopping was something you did when you had to. It certainly wasn’t something anyone enjoyed. Then, in the late 1880s, one man came along and changed all that. His name was Harry Gordon Selfridge and this is the story of his life.

Download or read book The Professionalization of Window Display in Britain, 1919-1939 written by Kerry Meakin and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2024-09-05 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides the first comprehensive history of window display as a practice and profession in Britain during the dynamic period of 1919 to 1939. In recent decades, the disciplines of retail history, business history, design and cultural history have contributed to the study of department stores and other types of shops. However, these studies have only made passing references to window display and its role in retail, society and culture. Kerry Meakin investigates the conditions that enabled window display to become a professional practice during the interwar period, exploring the shift in display styles, developments within education and training, and the international influence on methods and techniques. Piecing together the evidence, visual and written, about people, events, organisations, exhibitions and debates, Meakin provides a critical examination of this vital period of design history, highlighting major display designers and artists. The book reveals the modernist aesthetic developments that influenced high street displays and how they introduced passers-by to modern art movements.

Download or read book Media Representations of Retail Work in America written by Brittany R. Clark and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2022-11-15 with total page 153 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Media Representations of Retail Work in America examines the ways in which retail workers have been portrayed in popular culture texts from the early 20th century to the 21st century.

Download or read book Britain Since 1707 written by Hamish Fraser and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-07-10 with total page 948 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Britain since 1707 is the first single-volume book to cover the complex and multi-layered history of Great Britain from its inception until 2007. Bringing together political, economic, social and cultural history, the book offers a reliable and balanced account of the nation over a 300 year period. It looks at major developments – such as the Enlightenment, the growth of democracy and gender change – while also tracing the distinctive experience of different, the book’s additional features include: social and ethnic groups through the decades. Fully integrating Scotland, Wales and the Irish experience, the book’s comprehensive sweep includes coverage of the industrial revolution, the British Empire, the two world wars and today’s multicultural society. Ideally structured to support courses and classes on British history · ‘Focus On’ sections with original documents and sources · Timelines and tables to aid understanding · Historical sources and further reading suggestions at the end of each chapter · Illuminating contemporary illustrations From Queen Anne to Gordon Brown, this wide-ranging and accessible book provides a complete and up-to-date history of Britain. Offering a coherent account of the evolution of the nation and its people, it will be essential reading for all students of British history.

Download or read book Edwardians on Screen written by Katherine Byrne and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-09-22 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores television's current fascination with the Edwardian era. By exploring popular period dramas such as Downton Abbey , it examines how the early twentieth century is represented on our screens, and what these shows tell us about class, gender and politics, both past and present.