Kleinfeld Bridal

Written by Laura Sanburn

Kleinfeld Bridal is an emporium of wedding gowns and accessories. Not only historically significant, Kleinfeld represents an evolving relationship between brides and their wedding. Kleinfeld has the largest collection of wedding dresses in the country and has several exclusive labels, including Pnina Tornai and Alita Graham. It also is associated with TLC (formerly the acronym for The Learning Channel) television show, Say Yes to the Dress, with all New York City episodes staged at Kleinfeld’s.

Bay Ridge, Brooklyn Store:

In 1652, the Dutch settled in the area of Bay Ridge and called it variously Yellow Hook or Yellow Ridge. At the turn of the nineteenth century, the area was a summer retreat for the wealthy, and by the 1940s, was a majority working and middle class neighborhood. Today, the neighborhood has a rich diversity of immigrants, with predominantly one and two-family homes with lawns and garages....

Written by Laura Sanburn

Kleinfeld Bridal is an emporium of wedding gowns and accessories. Not only historically significant, Kleinfeld represents an evolving relationship between brides and their wedding. Kleinfeld has the largest collection of wedding dresses in the country and has several exclusive labels, including Pnina Tornai and Alita Graham. It also is associated with TLC (formerly the acronym for The Learning Channel) television show, Say Yes to the Dress, with all New York City episodes staged at Kleinfeld’s.

Bay Ridge, Brooklyn Store:

In 1652, the Dutch settled in the area of Bay Ridge and called it variously Yellow Hook or Yellow Ridge. At the turn of the nineteenth century, the area was a summer retreat for the wealthy, and by the 1940s, was a majority working and middle class neighborhood. Today, the neighborhood has a rich diversity of immigrants, with predominantly one and two-family homes with lawns and garages.

Kleinfeld opened in 1941 at 8202 Fifth Avenue in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. It was originally a fur store owned and operated by Isadore Kleinfeld, who had trained as an engineer in Vienna, but decided to turn to his father’s business as a furrier upon immigrating to the United States. The initial investment was $600. Originally called I. Kleinfeld and Son, the store sold furs and featured a millinery department. The entire family worked at Kleinfeld, and with growing success, they hired Jack Schachter, who eventually married Isadore’s daughter, Hedda.

The store quickly evolved and by 1946 expanded to sell high priced clothes, suits, and coats. It was not until several years later that the family began selling wedding dresses. According to Jack Schachter, "so many people came in for white dresses and we realized that we could go more bridal." By 1968, Kleinfeld exclusively sold wedding dresses and accessories. When the family owned the business, they lived in the upper floor apartment, and it was not until they sold the business in 1990 that they moved to the Upper West Side in Manhattan.

In a New York Times synopsis of Bay Ridge, Kleinfeld is given an entire paragraph, illuminating the influence and importance of the store to the neighborhood. Over the years, Kleinfeld developed from a single storefront to a conglomeration of seven storefronts pieced together as more space was needed. From 1968 onward, the company developed a reputation for stocking the largest selection of designer wedding dresses in the US, accompanied by pampered and attention-to-detail customer service. For many brides-to-be, the trip to Kleinfeld was a “rite of passage” and one often passed down from mother to daughter.

In 1987, Peter Marino remodeled the original Bay Ridge store by redesigning the interior and giving the store a unified and neoclassical facade. Marino is known for his eccentric style, and his practice focuses on residential and retail design. Other clients include Ermenegildo Zegna, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, and Christian Dior. Each of these patrons has commissioned him to design at least four retail outlets. Marino believed the neoclassical style was appropriate for Kleinfeld because “marriage is a neoclassical institution.” This facade is still visible in 2013, and the neoclassical style is also employed at the Manhattan location.

Despite Kleinfeld’s success among brides-to-be, Hedda and Jack Schachter decided to retire. In 1990, they sold the business to Michel Zelnik, the chief executive of the garment manufacturer Bidermann Industries. During Zelnik’s tenure in 1990s, Kleinfeld Bridal annually served over 18,000 future brides, and sold over 8,000 gowns; it also provided a shuttle service to and from Manhattan. In 1992, Kleinfeld sold $22-23 million worth of dresses. However, in 1997, the company was sold to Gordon Brothers Group, a Manhattan investment firm, with Eugene Kohn as the man-on-the-ground. Between 1997 and 1999, Gordon Brothers Group saved the business from bankruptcy, and in 1999 sold it to the current owners Ronald Rothstein, Mara Urshel, and Wayne Rogers.

Chelsea, Manhattan Store:

In 2005, Rothstein and Urshel opened a second store, Kleinfeld Bridesmaids’ Loft, on Manhattan’s West 38th Street, and they then relocated the flagship store out of Brooklyn to its current location at 110 West 20th Street. The West 20th Street store is 35,000 square feet, roughly twice the size of the original 20,000 square foot store. As of 2013, the original Bay Ridge location is now a TD Bank.

The move to Manhattan was not without controversy. Over the years, other wedding vendors had grown up around the Bay Ridge store, and the street was dubbed Bridal Row. The Row included photographers, florists, gift store, tuxedo shops and smaller wedding dress shops like Sposabella. Local Bay Ridge residents felt that the Manhattan move undermined what the Kleinfeld experience had become for them. However, the move was made to accommodate expanding business, and to provide improved working conditions for staff and bring the store closer to the majority of their clients who live and work in Manhattan. “We’re delighted to be building a one-of-a-kind retail destination in Manhattan, and we are extremely proud of the fact that it has been designed from the ground up with the needs of our brides and our staff in mind, in true Kleinfeld style,” said Urshel in an interview with the Brooklyn Paper.

On West 20th Street, Kleinfeld is located on the edge of the Ladies’ Mile Historic District, which extends from 15th Street to 24th Street, and Sixth Avenue to Broadway. Landmarked in 1989, the district gets its name from a stretch of Broadway that was the most fashionable and exclusive shopping street in New York City from the late 1850s until the 1910s. Once a heavily residential area, retail began to establish itself on the avenues and eventually filled in the streets. The area embodies a sequence of New York commercial architectural history, displaying an evolution of stylistic, structural, and technological innovations. Today the area still includes many shops, chain stores, and restaurants, housed within the historic structures built during the first development of the area for commercial use.

Stonehill & Taylor Architects designed Kleinfeld’s West 20th Street location in 2005. They specialize in hospitality design. Paul Taylor managed the project and based his design upon a “once-upon-a-time vision of the ‘perfect wedding.’” He converted the ground floor of what was formerly a warehouse, but preserved the historical interior columns and exterior stonework. The exterior aesthetic is similar to the renovation by Peter Marino in Bay Ridge. Kleinfeld owners Rothstein and Urshel chose a hospitality-oriented architect because according to Rothstein, “Our business isn’t really retail, it’s hospitality.” They wanted to create an experience, not a simple shopping trip; a moment to be a princess and an environment that treats the moment as special. The Kleinfeld brand is expanding, including a souvenir gift shop, men’s formal wear, and Kleinfeld Paper, transforming the once humble family-run business into a multi-million dollar national enterprise.

Kleinfeld takes pride in window displays, arranging the two large windows flanking the front door with lavish decor and dresses. They change displays every one to four months and feature men’s suits and women’s bridal gowns. (It was not until November 2008 that they first displayed men’s clothing.) An entire page on the website is devoted to displays, including chronological images of each window. The images convey luxury and drama.

Kleinfeld Bridals current classical stone facade features lantern-like lights flanking the entry door. Plush seating and crystal chandeliers in the lobby continue this narrative. Beyond the lobby is the showroom, accessed via an arched threshold flanked by mannequins decked out in Kleinfeld garb. Lighting in the showroom is intentionally much brighter than the lobby, both for the practical function of the bride being able to examine the dresses and to serve as a tool of allure. The embellishments on the dresses will glisten and shimmer under the bright lights and there is a physical attraction to the showroom from the darker lobby, as if it were a magical place where a young woman will reach the apex of her quest. In this case, the quest is finding the dress for the bride’s big day.

The quest begins when she turns onto 20th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues. She is not quite sure where she is going, the street is mostly warehouses with only a few storefronts, but then she spots it. Two large display windows with silver circular awnings flank the entrance. The architecture of the entrance matches the existing neoclassical building, and in combination with the lantern-like light fixtures and circular awnings, it emulates a long-established shop. Weddings are grounded in tradition, so it is important that Kleinfeld Bridal evoke a sense of tradition and connection to the past.

When the young woman musters the courage to enter, she passes through a series of thresholds. A vestibule with a second set of doors, followed by a short corridor with a plaque stating “Please be aware that by entering Kleinfeld, you consent to your voice and likeness being videotaped and used without compensation for exploitation on television …” The lobby is softly lit with high ceilings, neoclassically inspired carpeting and chairs, and cream colored walls with elaborate crown molding. People talk in hushed yet giddy voices and the all female staff wears black. The young woman sits on a plush sofa and peers into the brightly lit showroom; she has been instructed not to enter the showroom until her consultant comes for her. The contrast between the softly lit lobby and the brightly lit beckons her closer.

The consultant calls the woman in and she is escorted through an arched portal into the showroom. The showroom is all white, with dresses hanging on the walls. A Louis XIV style sofa, pedestal and large mirrors are placed in the center of the room. The consultant keeps walking past the showroom to a long corridor of dressing rooms and directs the young woman to the consultant’s dressing room. Images of twirling around on the pedestal in the showroom are exchanged for a small dressing room along a corridor of identical dressing rooms. The young woman is overwhelmed; she just saw so many exquisite dresses in the showroom, where does she start! She starts with a strapless dress, wrapped with lace and rhinestones. She anticipates the moment when the consultant instructs her to walk back to the showroom, but it never happens. She tries on dress after dress, with a few promenades down the dressing room corridor. The experience is thrilling; she is finding her magical wedding dress.

Her consultation concludes after an hour and a half, and she is escorted back to the lobby. Once back on the street, the glamour fades, but she has found her dress!

Because of the TLC show, Kleinfeld Bridal has reached a national audience; the American public now equates the wedding dress shopping experience with the space of Kleinfeld Bridal, influencing the current and coming generations of potential brides. The sought after experience will be compared to those of the brides on Say Yes to the Dress. Kleinfeld Bridal as a space embodies the hopes and dreams of future brides, the public, and their conception of what a wedding signifies.

“The Kleinfeld Experience”:

As would be fitting for the largest wedding dress purveyor in the United States, current owners of Kleinfeld have written a book titled, “How to Buy Your Perfect Wedding Dress.”

The first wedding reality TV show was A Wedding Story on TLC in 1996. In 2007, Kleinfeld signed a contract with TLC to record the New York version of Say Yes to the Dress, ushering in a new phase of Kleinfeld, one where the salon steps into the national spotlight, joining a series of other wedding focused reality TV shows. Other shows related to weddings on TLC include Randy to the Rescue, Something Borrowed Something New, Four Weddings, and Say Yes to the Dress: Bridesmaids, and can all be viewed on TLC’s “Friday Bride Day,” an entire day devoted solely to wedding shows. Three of the five shows mentioned above exclusively follow the experience of brides-to-be selecting their dress. TLC places heavy emphasis on the dress over any other component of a wedding, and this attitude manifests itself at Kleinfeld Bridal as well.

The TV shows have captured the imagination of young females across the nation and is evident in the following statements from a blog post.

These are the kind of shows [Say Yes to the Dress] that when you see they’re on, you kind of squeal a little with excitement. And then when there is a marathon you kind of want to skip work and just watch them all day. [...] If you haven’t watched either of these shows before you are seriously missing out!