Shopping, Seduction & Mr Selfridge

The men who created the first department stores made vast fortunes, but no one grasped the concept of consumption as a sensual female entertainment better than the maverick American retailer Harry Gordon Selfridge. This book tells the story of a revolution in shopping and the rise and fall of a retail prince. Welcome to the fabulous world of Harry Gordon Selfridge (1856-1947): father of modern retailing, philanderer, gambler, dandy and the greatest showman the consumer world has ever known. In Shopping, Seduction and Mr Selfridge, the bustle of turn-of-the-century America is thrillingly evoked by fashion PR legend Lindy Woodhead as we're introduced to the men who created the first department stores - what Zola called 'great cathedrals of shopping'. The young Mr Selfridge learnt his trade in the nascent metropolis of Chicago - the Dubai of its day - where riches were lost as quickly as fortunes were made. Moving to London in 1907, Harry Selfridge lived through the tumult of the First World War and the glittering excesses of the 1920's when he lost millions at the gaming tables in France before being ousted from his store in 1939. His seductive talents extended much further than the shop floor too, as he racked up a lengthy list of female companions over the years. To this irrepressible man, 'the store was a theatre with the curtain going up at 9 o'clock': Shopping, Seduction and Mr Selfridge tells the story of what happened before the curtain fell.