On Sale

by Jackie Walker

My desire was always to become a buyer for an upscale department store. To gain experience during high school and college, I took every retail part-time job at the local May-Cohens location in Jacksonville, Florida.

The time had arrived to leave the nest, and my parents drove me to the big city of Atlanta. I marveled at the golden dome on the capitol as we approached our destination. At first I was fortunate to spend a couple of exciting years at a high-end specialty store called Regensteins. This was early in the year 1965 and my roommate worked across the street at an equally elegant location called J.P. Allen.

“There is an opening for an assistant buyer on the second floor of my store,” she told me excitedly that evening. A week later I was happily in a new office there overseeing all 15 areas of designer clothing. I reported to an amazing woman who did all the buying. She kept all the facts and figures in a little black book on her desk, and was so organized that she could project the weather for the week ahead based on her past notes.

My desire was to please her with every action I took. Little by little she trusted me with more important tasks. One morning she called me to sit alongside her desk and hear her announcement:

“Yves St. Laurent will be visiting Atlanta, and the owner has secured a visit to our store. He has been impressed with sales of his different collections at our store and wants to congratulate our sales associates.”

Yves St. Laurent was a legendary French designer, widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in 20th-Century fashion. In 1965 he created “The Mondrian.” It was a sleek, A-line dress silhouette with bold black lines dividing blocks of color. Art combined with fashion. It became an instant cultural hit and J.P. Allen was the first location in Georgia to carry this style. But, at this point in my career, I had never heard of him or seen his particular Mondrian style.

At every nightly store closing, it was the second-floor staff’s responsibility to cover all the hanging clothes with sheets. During the night this would ensure that no dust would accumulate on these high-fashion pieces. As I was orchestrating the closing procedure, I also had to complete some needed markdowns. I realized that one of the styles had not sold any pieces to date, so I marked their tickets in red which meant they were on sale. Wanting to please my superior, I got the idea to grab a T-stand rack and prominently display this one style adjacent to the elevator with a bold sign on top that read “SALE.”

As a new Assistant Buyer, this was the first time I took the initiative to create a display on my own. I knew this would get my boss’ attention the next morning, but I never could have imagined the extent of it.

At 9 am the next morning, we readied the second floor’s opening. We were alerted that Mr. Laurent had arrived. He would be accompanied by the owner of Allens, as well as his French traveling assistants, and my boss. As the elevator doors opened, there was a respectful silence from the assembled sales force standing at attention. Mr. Laurent stepped off the elevator and, in an instant, began screaming words in French. He was visibly angry and even though we did not know what he was saying, we did know by his gestures that his words were obscene. In a second Laurent and his French traveling assistants turned back into the elevator and we heard their angry voices descending.

I knew something bad had happened, but I wasn’t sure what. My supervisor found me cowering in the back of her office, and I asked her what had happened.

“My dear, you marked down the designer’s famous Mondrian pieces and presented them, in front of him and his entire entourage, with a sale sign. I have a quick solution—

hide out in my office,” she said.

A second later the store owner burst into our area and screamed at her. He demanded to know how this insult to the designer could have happened. In the back of her office, I was certain my career was over.

In a low voice she assured him that a temporary associate must have made this mistake. She promised to send an apology letter to Mr. Laurent with flowers. That seemed to satisfy him, and he went off to cause more havoc.

I slowly approached her desk to beg forgiveness and thank her for saving me. Much to my shock, she started to laugh and then gave me a big hug.

“My dear, this will not be the last of your challenges in the crazy world of retail. Handle them all with a bit of humor and you will survive and thrive.”

Jackie Walker begain her career in the retail industry in postions ranging from a couture clothing buyer to a Human Resource Director for Federated Department Stores. In 1988 she left corporate life and started Option Dressing, a unique personal image consulting service focusing on the options in people’s closets that create inner and outer confidence for their personal choices. At this point “Closetology” was created and Jackie was branded Dr. of Closetology, a consultant on the psychology of clothing, with workshops and training seminars for clients and the public. Her bestselling book, I Don’t Have a Thing to Wear, The Psychology of Your Closet, now in the 8th printing with Simon and Schuster has been translated and released internationally. Her second book Expressionista, How To Express Your True Self Through (And Despite) Fashion was published by Simon and Schuster in 2013. She has appeared on many national and local television and radio shows and contributed to magazines across the country. Jackie teaches a course in Closetology for OLLI in November. For details and registration, click here.