Traub on how Bloomingdale’s became a household name: VIDEO

As The Real Deal noted yesterday, Marvin Traub, who is credited with turning retailer Bloomingdale’s into an internationally recognized brand, died yesterday at age 87. Now, Bloomberg News remembers the man who helped launch the careers of designers like Tommy Hilfiger, Donna Karan and Ralph Lauren.

Taub, who began working at the department store in 1950 and rose through the ranks to become chairman and chief executive in 1978, recalls the Bloomingdale’s of the 1950s, where one could buy “$0.49 irregular hosiery,” and how the store began to focus on fashion in the 1960s, as America’s fashion preferences shifted.

Under Taub’s leadership, Bloomingdale’s began to send buyers around the world to find the newest fashions, and transformed itself into the brand synonymous with high (but not too-high) fashion that it remains today. “People don’t realize that Bloomingdale’s used to be a very different kind of store than it is today,” Traub said. [Bloomberg]