Styling the suburbs: Irene Sherman’s dress shops and fashion networks in the twentieth century

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to use the history of Irene Sherman’s suburban fashion shops to explore the significance of fashion retail for broader suburban distinctiveness. Principally, this is a study about networks and connections between the suburb and the city, retail and manufacturing and, finally, the importance of family networks for developing and sustaining a fashion business. Design/methodology/approach Chiefly, this paper uses original period newspapers, magazines and trade journal articles to reconstruct the story of Irene’s businesses. This approach is necessary as limited business records survive. Findings This paper demonstrates that Irene’s wider family network helped to inform many of her business decisions, particularly illustrating how important the clothes manufactured for her by her husband, Sam, were for her business. The author also shows how the experience of shopping for fashion changed in the suburbs over the 20th century and that by the 1980s, independent fashion retailers were disappearing from high streets. Originality/value The history of independent clothing retailers is hitherto under-researched, partly because of the lack of primary material that survives relating to these businesses. However, this paper demonstrates via a systematic approach that it is possible to uncover the history of such ventures. Suburbs are typically not represented in fashion history, although they are deserving of greater recognition. Studying the histories of independent retail in the suburbs can help us to break free from stereotyped tropes of the 20th-century experience of the suburb.