The Rosebud Blossoms Out

Until last week, knife-pleated nylon materials were used mainly for such carriage-trade items as $50 nightgowns. Then, Dressmaker Henry Rosenfeld, who has built up a $19 million-a-year business by making carriage-trade dresses at subway prices, put nylon to his own uses. At his spring style show in Manhattan's Russeks, he showed off an all-over knife-pleated nylon dress for $19.95--and U.S. retailers have already snapped up 10,000. Also on view was a wallpaper-print voile for $14.95, already so popular that Rosenfeld has ordered one million yards of voile, the biggest single piece-goods purchase he has ever made.

Rosenfeld had more than new dresses to show off; he had also brought out a line of low-priced women's suits, his first venture into that field. He got the idea from Adam Gimbel, president of Manhattan's Saks Fifth Avenue, who asked Rosenfeld for some summer suits to sell for $25. In less than six weeks, Rosenfeld sold 125,000 suits to stores all over the U.S., and Saks alone thinks that it may sell 15,000.

That spurred Rosenfeld to put his designer, Elizabeth Hilt, to work on fall and winter suits. He earmarked $1,000,000 (Henry's favorite figure) for purchase of Botany flannels, iridescent tweeds, etc., and signed up six factories which turned out WAC and WAVE uniforms during the war to make his suits. Next month he expects to show buyers 30 new models of fall suits to retail for $39.95. By the end of next year, he thinks his gross will rise to $40 million as he turns out 1,000,000 suits bearing his rosebud label.

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