Shopping, Seduction & Mr. Selfridge

Shopping, Seduction & Mr. Selfridge PDF Author: Lindy Woodhead
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0812985052
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 353

Book Description
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.)

Shopping, Seduction and Mr Selfridge

Shopping, Seduction and Mr Selfridge PDF Author: Lindy Woodhead
Publisher: Profile Books(GB)
ISBN: 9781861971692
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
When the visionary American retailer Harry Gordon Selfridge, rightfully known as 'the showman of shopping', moved from Chicago to open his eponymous store in Oxford Street, he brought with him his heartfelt belief in the sex appeal of shopping. In the process Selfridge became rich and famous, But his weakness for high living: fast women, grand houses, extravagant entertaining and an insatiable addiction to gambling, brought about his downfall. Thirty years after he opened his revolutionary store, Harry Gordon Selfridge was ousted in a Board Room coup. In 1947, he died virtually penniless in a small flat in Putney. His memorial is in Oxford Street, where the towering Ionic columns of Selfridges stand witness to the achievement of his dreams. In this book, which explores the rise of twentieth-century consumerism, Lindy Woodhead tells the extraordinary story of a revolution in shopping and the rise and fall of a retail prince.

Shopping, Seduction & Mr. Selfridge

Shopping, Seduction & Mr. Selfridge PDF Author: Lindy Woodhead
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0812985052
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 353

Book Description
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.)

Mr. Selfridge

Mr. Selfridge PDF Author: Lindy Woodhead
Publisher: Vallardi
ISBN: 8867316605
Category : Fiction
Languages : it
Pages : 286

Book Description
A Londra esisteva già Harrods, che aveva tra i suoi clienti affezionati Oscar Wilde. I profeti di sventura erano disposti a scommettere sull’insuccesso della fiammante cattedrale del commercio. Ma Selfridge aveva la strategia vincente: rendere lo shopping eccitante come il sesso. La sua vita, sullo sfondo del jet set angloamericano, è stata segnata dall’ambizione, dal glamour e dall’amore smodato per il lusso e il gioco d’azzardo. Lindy Woodhead la ricostruisce con lo stile frizzante e appassionato di un grande romanzo. Nella seconda metà dell’Ottocento da Parigi a New York, i grandi magazzini – i «Paradisi delle signore», come li chiamava Emile Zola – cambiarono per sempre il volto del commercio. Ma nessuno meglio di Harry Gordon Selfridge comprese che lo shopping non ha solo a che fare con la qualità o la bellezza dei prodotti: cercando di prevedere le necessità e di soddisfare il bisogno di stile e svago delle sue clienti, Selfridge riuscì a fare di esso un’esperienza completa, divertente, seducente, e intossicante. Partito come magazziniere, Selfridge divenne l’uomo più importante dei grandi magazzini Marshall Field di Chicago, facendone una Mecca per le appassionate degli acquisti. A cinquant’anni tagliò ogni legame con l’America, e a Londra riuscì a trasformare le sue visioni in una realtà che dura tuttora, contribuendo a fare di Oxford Street una delle vie dello shopping più celebri del mondo. «Un libro pieno di energia e magnificamente dettagliato.» Spectator Business «Una trascinante biografia che è anche un ritratto coinvolgente della società del tempo.» Independent on Sunday

Mr Selfridge

Mr Selfridge PDF Author: Lindy Woodhead
Publisher: PUNTO DE LECTURA
ISBN: 8466327746
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : es
Pages : 373

Book Description
El libro en el que se basa la serie de televisión. La fascinante historia del hombre que revolucionó nuestra forma de comprar, ahora convertida en una exitosa serie. En 1909 abrieron sus puertas en Oxford Street, en medio de una colosal campaña publicitaria, los grandes almacenes Selfridges, los primeros de Londres. Detrás de tan elegante fachada estaba Harry Gordon Selfridge, el gran genio estadounidense. Empresario inconformista y arriesgado, dandi y el mayor showman que ha conocido el mundo del comercio, la clave de su éxito fue despertar la seducción por las compras. Y así como crecieron su éxito y su fama, también lo hizo su estilo de vida: mansiones, yates, juegos de azar, caballos de carreras... y amantes. Desde el glamour de la Inglaterra eduardiana y los excesos embriagadores de los años veinte hasta hoy en día, los grandes almacenes Selfridges han sido un gran teatro que levanta el telón todas las mañanas a las nueve en punto. La crítica ha dicho... «Un fascinante estudio biográfico, y también sociológico.» The Guardian «Una descripción cautivadora de la moda, la política, la música y la danza, las artes, las ciencias de la publicidad y el uso de los medios de comunicación en las décadas anteriores a la Segunda Guerra Mundial.» London Evening Standard

Selfridge

Selfridge PDF Author: Fergus Mason
Publisher: BookCaps Study Guides
ISBN: 1629172928
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 56

Book Description
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.

The Professionalization of Window Display in Britain, 1919-1939

The Professionalization of Window Display in Britain, 1919-1939 PDF Author: Kerry Meakin
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350427489
Category : Design
Languages : en
Pages : 247

Book Description
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.

The Representation of the Protagonist Harry Gordon Selfridge in the TV Series "Mr Selfridge"

The Representation of the Protagonist Harry Gordon Selfridge in the TV Series Author: Kim Frintrop
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3656940711
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 30

Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Literature, Works, grade: 1,3, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, course: Graduate Seminar British Studies, language: English, abstract: Macy’s, KaDeWe, Au Bon Marché, Harrods, Whiteley’s, les Galeries LaFayette – all these stores represent only a few of the many well-known department stores situated in different modern metropolises. What all these famous large-scale stores have in common is that they are mass marketplaces which are often referred to as “halls of temptation” (Rappaport 16) or “cathedrals of consumption” (Fiske 10). In this sense, shopping is no longer considered a pure economic act. Rather, it is regarded as an act being strongly associated with illusion, desires, self-fulfillment, seduction and dreams. With their innovative interior and exterior architecture, their overwhelming range of goods coming from all over the world, and their leisure time facilities, they manage to fascinate us. These great stores offer customers an enjoyable shopping experience or rather enable them to spend a unique day out by providing much more than the latest fashion and household goods or nice cafés and restaurants in comfortable settings. Many of this type of store include cinemas, theater shows, fitness center or sometimes even miniature golf courses or bowling centers. March 15, 1909 marks the birth of one of these great department stores, still sustaining its position in British society today: Selfridges. It was the American self-made retail entrepreneur Harry Gordon Selfridge who founded this department store in London’s Oxford Street in 1909 and fascinated his customers by creating a unique experience of shopping (Woodhead 1). To this day, Harry Selfridge is highly praised as a unique marketing innovator. As his personal story inspired ITV drama, there even has been a TV series adapted in which the life of Selfridge and his family members is portrayed as well as the rise and the success of his lifework. Given that this American visionary presents the protagonist of the TV series Mr Selfridge, the aim of this paper is to consider the central question how his character is represented in the series.
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