Peck & Peck
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Peck & Peck was a New York based retailer of private label women's wear prominent on Fifth Avenue.[1] Founded by Edgar Wallace Peck and his brother George H. Peck[2], it began in New York in 1888[3] as a hosiery store, with early location near Madison Square.[4] At Edgar Peck's death, Time magazine reported in their Nov. 5, 1928 Milestones column that the brothers had to pay rent every 24 hours to a distrusting landlord, but now had 19 stores. [5] It grew to 78 stores across the United States. It was purchased in the 1970's by the Minneapolis-based retailing company, Salkin & Linoff and through a combination of poor family management and widely decentralized locations, the chain basically shut down and sold for pieces.[6] Some specific store locations of the chain were sold by Salkin & Linoff by the mid/late 1980's to H.C. Prange and only a few single stores may remain.
It was known for its classic clothes. Like Bonwit Teller and B. Altman and Company's post-World War II fashions, Peck & Peck personified and flourished in the pre-hippie era in New York[7] when WASP fashion ruled stores and fashion magazines.[8] The store had the distinction of being listed in Lisa Birnbach's The Official Preppy Handbook as one of the late, great RIP "prep" retailers, along with New York stores like Best & Co. and Abercrombie & Fitch, both since revived. To writers like Joan Didion, Peck & Peck was descriptor and shorthand for a certain fashion look.[9] Some say that even Hillary Clinton has a Peck & Peck look.[10]
Other fashion retailers that grew in the wake of the closure of Peck & Peck were Ann Taylor and Talbots.
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