Dressing Modern Maternity - (Costume Society of America) by Kay Goldman (Hardcover)

About the Book

How three Texas sisters revolutionized maternity fashion

Book Synopsis

In Depression-era Dallas, Elsie Frankfurt and Edna Frankfurt Ravkind raised five hundred dollars and launched a daring new enterprise, Page Boy Maternity Clothing--the first to engineer elegance in comfort. When Louise Frankfurt Gartner joined the team, the sisters' combined engineering, business, and PR genius made Page Boy the foremost maternity-clothing manufacturer in the United States. Dressing entertainment icons such as Loretta Young, Elizabeth Taylor, and Florence Henderson, Page Boy broke new ground in every direction. Innovative marketing and business strategies would make the Page Boy label internationally known and land the Frankfurt sisters celebrity in their own right. As a company, Page Boy would thrive until the end of the twentieth century, leaving a rich legacy in the histories of fashion and women in business. Illuminating the Page Boy story are Goldman's insights into the history of maternity clothing in the U.S., America women in business prior to the 1930s, Jewish involvement in garment manufacturing in Dallas, and ultimately the decisions that would lead to Page Boy's demise.

Review Quotes

I applaud Goldman for giving us so many reasons to love this book. The remarkable Frankfurt sisters were entrepreneurs well ahead of their time, daring to embark in a highly specialized niche in the worst of economic times--and succeeding on sheer creativity, determination, and, yes, even inflexibility. This is an illuminating study in fashion, family enterprise, and the trials and tribulations of women-owned businesses. Once I started reading, I couldn't stop.--Kay King, fashion designer

Maternity wear, much like pregnancies of the past, has been a hidden subject. Kay Goldman's work illuminates this marginalized area of clothing history as well as the largely untold story of the clothing industry in twentieth-century Texas. The overlooked role of Jewish women in that business is particularly interesting. -Michaele Thurgood Haynes, retired curator of costume, Witte Museum, and author of Dressing Up Debutantes: Pageantry and Glitz in Texas

The Page Boy Maternity fashion label is well known to those of us of a certain age. What we didn't understand at the time was the importance of these women entrepreneurs and their trailblazing as the first to manufacture fashionable maternity clothing. Kay Goldman has filled that void in this fascinating slice of history in the fashion world and the story of the Frankfurt sisters of Dallas. --Frances B. Vick, co-author of Letters to Alice: Birth of the Kleberg-King Ranch Dynasty

Dressing Modern Maternity is an insightful look at not only the entrepreneurial Frankfurt Sisters but also the development and growth of a new industry within the fashion world. The rise of well-designed maternity fashions under the talented hands of Elsie, Edna, and Louise also provides a lesson on how changing business practices and relational dynamics in family-held companies can be forces for success or failure. --Debra Polsky, Executive Director, Dallas Jewish Historical Society

About the Author

Kay Goldman's research centers on Jewish business people in Texas and their relationship with the surrounding culture. She has also researched The National Council of Jewish Women in Louisiana and Texas. She lives in College Station, Texas.