For this reason, early company CEO Peb Atera was quoted in 1957 as saying in jest that Neiman Marcus was "founded on bad business judgment.
With the opening of the flagship Neiman Marcus Building, the store increased its product selection to include accessories, lingerie, and children's clothing, as well as expanding the women's apparel department.
During the 1930s and 1940s, Neiman Marcus began to include less-expensive clothing lines along with its high-end items, in response to the Great Depression and following war years.
The themed decor included Kachina figures on colored-glass murals and an Alexander Calder mobile named "Mariposa,"[10] the Spanish word for butterfly.
Clients included Hope Portocarrero, Lyndon Johnson, Howard Hughes, and the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and his family.
The company continued its extravagant marketing efforts (including the launch of His and Her gifts in the famous Christmas Book) with the inauguration of Fortnight in 1957.
The Fortnight was an annual presentation of fashions and culture from a particular country, held in late October and early November of each year, and was one of the most anticipated events in Dallas.
In subsequent years stores opened in over 30 cities across the United States, including Atlanta, Charlotte, Beverly Hills, Boston, Chicago, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, San Francisco and St. Louis.
Neiman Marcus also had a letter of intent to open a 120,000 square foot store in downtown Cleveland in 1992 as part of an anchor for the upscale Tower City Center.
Marcus had been the architect behind the fashion shows, New York advertising for a strictly regional chain, in-store art exhibits, and the Christmas catalog with its outlandish His-and-Hers gifts, including vicuña wool coats, a pair of airplanes, "Noah's Ark"[failed verification] (including pairs of animals), camels, and live tigers.
[18] The "Neiman-Marcus Collection," comprising early account books, advertising and Christmas Catalog layouts, files on charity activities, past awards and presentations, and a collection of Stanley Marcus's personal memorabilia, among many other items, is located in the Texas & Dallas History & Archives Division, 7th Floor, Main Library, Dallas Public Library, where it may be consulted by researchers.
In August 2013, Women's Wear Daily reported Neiman Marcus Group was preparing for an initial public offering of its stock.
[19] In October 2013, the Neiman Marcus Group was sold for $6 billion to Ares Management and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.
[24] In April 2019, Neiman Marcus acquired a minority stake in Fashionphile, an online resale platform for handbags, jewelry and accessories.
[31] In August 2020 it announced the closing of five stores: Mazza Gallerie in Washington D.C.; Hudson Yards in New York City; The Galleria at Fort Lauderdale; Worth Avenue in Palm Beach, Florida; and Downtown Bellevue near Seattle.
While Stanley Marcus wanted to use white marble throughout the new store, Raymond Nasher and Hamilton argued for unity in the overall design and materiality of the Center.
Marcus stated 'We found ourselves educating most of the architects…that…were positive of only one thing with any store: that we would want to change it within 10 years… [but Roche] was very convincing that a building had to have some discipline.
"[46] *fiscal year **announced Neiman Marcus is still in operation today under the original name and is still headquartered in Dallas, where it was founded.
"[65][66] The Neiman Marcus Group owned majority interest in Kate Spade LLC, a manufacturer of handbags and accessories.
Another divestiture was a majority interest in Gurwitch Products LLC, which manufactures Laura Mercier cosmetics, to Alticor Inc., for approximately $40.8 million.
The luxury fashion online store ships worldwide and offers designer clothing, shoes, bags and accessories for women.
[73][76] Since 1939, Neiman Marcus has issued an annual Christmas catalog, which gets much free publicity from the national media for a tradition of unusual and extravagant gifts not sold in its stores.
The idea was sparked when journalist Edward R. Murrow contacted Marcus to ask if the store would be offering anything unusual that might interest his radio listeners.
Marcus invented on the spot an offering of a live Black Angus bull accompanied by a sterling silver barbecue cart, and the catalog was subsequently altered to include this item, priced at $1,925.
Dating back as early as the 1930s, rumors started to circulate about a woman and her daughter who were out to lunch at Neiman Marcus and for dessert shared a chocolate chip cookie that they loved so much they asked the server for the recipe.