Loehmann's

My mother used to go to Loehmann's in Brooklyn with her mother and older sister. Mom said that even living in Brooklyn, Loehmann's was very inconvenient to get to. (Mom's family lived in Ditmas Park near Flatbush.)

Loehmann's sold a lot of mid-range designer clothes like Suzy Perette, Claire McCardell, and Bill Blass for Maurice Rentner. There were no dressing rooms, not even a communal one. Upstairs on the second floor, one grabbed clothes from the racks, stripped down to one's undies where one stood (always a bra, slip and girdle), and tried on the outfit right there on the sales floor. At the time, mom was younger than the target consumer but she went because she served a very valuable purpose: she guarded the personal clothes while Grandma and Aunt Margot tried things on. Mom said that if you didn't guard your own clothes, there was the risk of them being picked up by someone and purchased.

Men weren't allowed upstairs because of all the women wandering around in their undergarments. Old Mrs. Loehmann, who according to mom looked just like Whistler's Mother, used to sit on the landing between the first and second floors like a sentry. No male ever got past old Mrs. Loehmann.

My mom's family moved from Brooklyn to Manhattan in 1954. I don't think they made the trek to Loehmann's again.