Last minute Christmas shopping over the past weekend reminded me of “Men’s Night” when the local stores would be open one weekday evening during the holidays to cater to men who were at work and unable to shop during the day. I remember my town doing it back in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. Maybe your town did it, too.
One store in my town, Worth’s, took it a step further. They sent their female staff home for the evening and only used males as sales associates on Men’s Nights. The idea was that male customers would be more at ease buying gifts for their ladies if the sales people were male.
But Worth’s did not stop there. The males working on Men’s Nights crossdressed as female sales associates!
Evidently this stunt was very popular and Worth’s was very busy on Men’s Nights. Even my father, who hated shopping, took advantage of Men’s Nights and the next day, would mention the “sales ladies” at Worth’s. I always wondered if any of the male customers showed up as crossdressed female customers, but it being circa 1960, I doubt it.
I tried to talk my father into taking me along on Men’s Nights, but he never did because Men’s Nights’ extended past my pre-teen bedtime.
And so it goes.
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| Wearing Cynthia Rowley |
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| Patricia Sánchez, Madrid, Spain |
Working at Worths. Seems like a dream. Come true, I’d have to put a little bit of faux resistance up, but then show them how it’s truly done the right way and then they would probably have trouble having me go back to my older persona once the new year came
ReplyDeleteHey Gaikowski Christmas is over no need to cross-dress anymore
You know giving this some thought they’re obviously had to be one or two persons working at Worths, who were not civilians come on who comes up with an idea like this, except one of our very own sisters,
“Mary Christmas “
Paula G
In my small town growing up there was not a Worth Department Store, but my mother was a seamstress and had a small dress shop. As a small boy sometimes mom would slip a dress on me that she was making for a customer's daughter to hem it. I was her dress dummy and on occasion I'd see girls wearing the very dresses I'd modeled for mom and when that happened I felt my face redden because I wondered if somehow those girls knew I had worn their dresses.
ReplyDeleteAs a teen on occasion I'd help mom at her shop by unpacking shipments or helping her put stock on the racks. Her customers would sometimes comment about what a sweet boy I was and quip that if I had been a girl then my mother could have made beautiful dresses for me to wear. Secretly I wanted to wear beautiful dresses again, but I never said anything about that.
One day around Christmas Mom and her one employee decided it would be fun if they dressed me up as a girl to spend the day with them during the holiday rush. They proposed their idea to me and I agreed to go along with them that one time.
I wore a beautiful red velvet holiday dress with black satin trim along with nylon stockings. Being fifteen at the time a lot of her customers simply thought I was a girl and I had so much fun that day,
Several years later when I was in college I asked mom to help me be a girl again for a costume party. She happily complied. If Worth Stores were in my hometown I'm sure I would have tried to get a job there just for Men's nights!
The story of Worth's almost seems too good to be true!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a teen, I worked at Wanamaker's departmemt store. Being the 80s, we had to dress nice for work which for me in the men's department, meant a shirt and tie. Because of our proximity to the women's department, I got to spend a lot of time admiring the latest femme fashions. I never had the opportunity to wear any of them to work, but I did spend most days dreaming about all the styles I wanted to wear!👗👠
I assure you that Men's Night was real. I used to have a clipping from the local newspaper advertising the event, but it was lost in the Great Purge of 1983.
DeleteNordstrom department store had such a night before Valentine's Day. Once I went looking for an ankle length full slip that had a lot of lace at the bodice and hem. The sales associate told me a slip like that was designed to be worn under a formal dress as a liner and do not come with lots of lace. I was disappointed.
ReplyDelete