Bonwit's Lady Boss

Manhattan's Fifth Avenue, a major showcase of American fashion, dangles its price tags on either side of the counter. It is one of the few places where a bright woman with ideas, who is content to wear a costume ring instead of a wedding band, can rise to rule the executive suite. Dorothy Shaver, president of Lord & Taylor until her death at 61 in 1959, was the archetype of the breed. At elegant Henri Bendel, Geraldine Stutz became president at 33, has successfully given her store an aura of ye-ye. Last week able, low-keyed Mildred Custin, 58, took over as president of twelve Bonwit Teller stores that stretch from Fifth Avenue headquarters south to Palm Beach and west to Oakbrook, Ill.

"Man of the Year." Bonwit's Vice President William E. Humphreys, 48, disappointed that he did not get the job, resigned a day after the announcement. Generally, however, the trade applauded Mildred Custin's promotion: in the idiom of fashion, her career has been simply divine. Born in New Hampshire, she went to Simmons College in Boston, was later hired by Boston's now defunct R. H. White Co. She then joined John Wanamaker, Inc. and rose to become its Philadelphia store's first woman vice president. Picked as Bonwit Teller of Philadelphia's president in 1958, she revived a dying downtown store with arresting windows and lavish interiors, raised sales 26.6%. Admiring Philadelphia merchants named her 1963's "Man of the Year"--one of the crosses successful women must bear. Says she: "There isn't room for a husband and children in the kind of job I have. Retailing is a full-time job."

This dedication did not escape Maxey Jarman, the Nashville corporate builder whose giant Genesco Inc. (annual sales: $589 million) owns Bonwit's and 63 other apparel companies. Jarman likes to have women executives around: he picked Jerry Stutz for Henri Bendel, also a Genesco subsidiary, and his House of Fragrance perfume and cosmetic company is headed by President Helen Van Slyke. "Women who are interested in a career and have a feminine viewpoint," says Jarman, "usually have intuitiveness as well as good promotion and advertising sense." Casting around for a new boss to replace resigning William L. Smith, Jarman quickly picked Mildred Custin for the $60,000-a-year job.

Sprucing Up. One of her main jobs will be to spruce up Bonwit's image, which has been somewhat fading of late. Bonwit's still ranks with neighboring Bergdorf Goodman and Saks Fifth Avenue, but it was once the fashion leader. In spite of exclusive designs from the U.S. and Europe, the store does not attract as many as it would like of the fashionable women who set style, does not have a reputation as a fun place to shop. Miss Custin intends to spruce up outside and inside, as she did in Philadelphia. "Display," she says, "is the showmanship of retailing." She will add boutiques to show off the 20% of avant-garde items that persuade shoppers to pause for the other 80%, will also goad buyers to create a common image for the dozen Bonwit stores.

Since she will thus become something of a fashion arbiter, Miss Custin will be carefully watched for her own preferences. She much prefers understated clothes. For years she was "a black girl," but this year she "is bursting into color in the daytime, saving black for night." She particularly likes colored coats--her favorite is a cherry-red Ben Zuckerman and sometimes a shocking pink with jeweled buttons. Her favorite designers are Gustave Tassell, Maurice Rentner, Ben Zuckerman and Norman Norell. She has never worn any perfume but Joy. Says Miss Custin: "I think perfume should become a woman's signature."

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