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Date(s)
- 1987 January 16 (Creation)
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MPEG file: 48.2 MiB; 35 minutes, 5 seconds. Original Media Format: Cassette
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Russell Stravitz joined Bloomingdale's in 1969 and had been working on and off at the company for 18 years as of 1986. For the previous 5 years, Stravitz had been reporting directly to Bloomingdale's CEO, Marvin S. Traub as the Executive VP of Bloomingdale's stores and the General Merchandising Manager of Ready-to-Wear and Fashion Accessories. Stravitz continued working at Bloomingdale's until 1980, before leaving to become the President of Rich's/ Goldsmith's Department Store.
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Biographical history
Estelle Ellis was born on November 12, 1919 in Brooklyn, New York. After graduating from Hunter College in 1940, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and a minor in Journalism, Ellis began a career in publishing. Ellis was crucial in the founding of Seventeen magazine in 1943, assisting Helen Valentine with design and advertising for the magazine. In 1958, Ellis founded Business Image, Incorporated, a creative marketing firm that stressed the importance of market and product positioning. Her company worked primarily with Condé Nast publications but other businesses, such as Yves Saint-Laurent Fragrances, Evan-Picone, AT&T, and Scoville, hired Business Image as well.
Beginning in the mid-1960s, Ellis began working with the Fashion Institute of Technology, creating programs and fundraising campaigns to help with financial support. During the 1990s, Ellis focused on writing, co-authoring At Home with Books: How Booklovers Live With and Care for Their Libraries (1995), At Home with Art: How Art Lovers Live With and Care for Their Treasures (1999), and The Booklover's Repair Kit: First Aid for Home Libraries (2000). Estelle Ellis passed away on July 12, 2012.
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In this interview, Stravitz focuses mostly on the challenges and successes he has faced in trying to expand the Bloomingdale's model into other markets. In doing this, he covers the importance of paying attention to each market's regional needs as well as ways in which marketing can be tailored to suit a particular market, culturally. At the same time, Stravitz explores what the New York store represents and how that can be carried through in other markets. A larger discussion of the crossover between department stores and specialty stores looks at what makes Bloomingdale's especially strong in both categories. As an example, Stravitz talks about the two "Bloomie's Express" specialty shops which Bloomingdale's had launched at JFK airport a few months before this interview. Stravitz describes the Bloomingdale's customer, across all markets, to be sophisticated, well-traveled, fashionable, and possibly affluent. In discussing his direct boss, Bloomingdale's CEO Marvin S. Traub, Stravitz describes him as deeply caring about the people he works with. He argues that Traub's personal concern for the business as well as the people connected to it result in high expectations as well as a supportive work environment. Traub's encouragement to try new things and his willingness to take the risk and support these ventures, Stravitz suggests, are what make Bloomingdale's an especially creative and entrepreneurial place.
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- Legacy audio file ID: AOH163
- Legacy transcript ID: T94
- https://fit.sunyconnect.suny.edu:4699/F?func=direct&doc_number=000055924
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- Stravitz, Russell (Subject)
- Bloomingdale's (Firm) (Subject)
- Bloomie's Express (Subject)
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Archivist's note
This was originally part of a larger recording that includes the Barbara Bass interview