The household feeling is powerful at Julian Gold.
The high-end retailer identified for its personalised service and a focus to element is celebrating 80 years this yr. How the corporate arrived on the milestone anniversary is rooted in its founding as a household enterprise and its familial method to customer support.
“We like to think about ourselves a generational expertise,” stated Courtney G. Percy, vice chairman of selling at Julian Gold. Generations of households have shopped there, she stated. And plenty of proceed to buy their favourite designer put on, formal attire and stylish outfits on the specialty store within the coronary heart of Olmos Park’s enterprise district.
“It’s a must to have these relationships. You’ll be able to’t simply make that up,” she stated of the long-standing affiliation the shop’s gross sales employees has with its clientele, which fits past understanding a shopper’s favourite designer and most-flattering model.
“They know these households, what organizations they’re concerned in, when someone will get married, when someone’s having a child,” she stated.
Such personalised service is what retailer homeowners pledged to its clients when Julian Gold opened its doorways.
Julian Gold, alongside along with his spouse, Dorothy, based the namesake specialty store in 1945, opening the preliminary location on North Major Avenue. The shop was thought-about certainly one of San Antonio’s first suburban retailers because it wasn’t downtown.
Earlier than opening the namesake retailer, Julian labored for Wolff & Marx Co., certainly one of a number of downtown retailers that additionally included Joske’s and Frost Bros. Dorothy was a former vogue mannequin with an ideal sense of favor. Collectively, the couple cast forward with their imaginative and prescient to promote prime designs to discriminating clients, and to take action with excellent service that will maintain them coming again.
Julian Gold moved to a bigger web site close to San Antonio School as plans bought underway to maneuver operations to the shop’s present location at 4109 McCullough Ave. Opened in 1962, the shop was initially a gown store that additionally offered coats and some separates. The shop advanced by the early Nineteen Seventies to incorporate extra sportswear and coordinated separates, reflective of the favored kinds of the time.
By the Eighties, the flagship retailer added hats and cosmetics to its stock, with homeowners ultimately deciding to supply every thing a lady would should be put collectively, head to toe. Quickly, the shop’s popularity for impeccable service and its distinction for carrying prime designers, together with Oscar de la Renta and Carolina Herrera, helped make it certainly one of Texas’ prime vogue retailers.
By the years, Julian Gold has hosted a number of occasions for its clientele, together with designer trunk reveals and vigorous vogue reveals highlighting the newest kinds for Fiesta. There even have been appearances by fashionable designers, together with shoe designer Donald Pliner, who consulted with purchasers and signed autographs.
Over time, Julian Gold expanded to different Texas cities: Corpus Christi and Midland within the Fifties; Austin in 2002; and Lubbock in 2022. House owners have expanded the flagship retailer to incorporate a second ground that homes a bridal salon. A small menswear part additionally was added.
In the present day, the corporate employs 66 folks at its 5 places. A few of its workers have been with the corporate because the Nineteen Nineties.
In January, Julian Gold will launch its “80 Years of Class” marketing campaign to have a good time its milestone anniversary. Quite a few model reveals and in-store retail occasions are deliberate in any respect 5 of its retail places. All through 2025, Julian Gold will spotlight among the most sought-after designers and tendencies for women and men, together with an in depth assortment of high-end bridal designs.
Whereas some retailers have scaled again operations, Julian Gold has maintained its brick-and-mortar presence. And it’s saved the facilities that set it aside, together with complimentary present wrap and on-site alteration providers.
“Our clientele is fiercely loyal,” stated James Glover, president and CEO at Julian Gold. Ensuring clients have what they want, in addition to making them look good, will make them blissful, he stated, and that may maintain them coming again.
Glover, who has been with Julian Gold since 1988, labored beneath Bob Gurwitz, the son-in-law of Julian and Dorothy who was married to their daughter, Gail. Gurwitz took the helm of the corporate within the Nineteen Sixties and is credited with serving to construct Julian Gold into an business stalwart. He handed away in 2022. His widow, Gail, handed in August.
Glover, whose daughter Courtney is the corporate’s vice chairman of selling, assumed the helm of the corporate a number of years in the past.
He says the “household vibe” that Julian Gold employees and clients expertise is a part of what makes the retailer particular.
Courtney, who grew up on the retailer and as a teen labored in its gift-wrapping division, now oversees technique, public relations and communication for the 5 Julian Gold shops in Texas. Her mom additionally works at Julian Gold, serving as certainly one of its consumers.
For Courtney, the “household vibe” on the retailer is powerful. And he or she agrees together with her father that the sense of household is felt by everybody with long-held ties to the shop.
“Individuals need that private interplay,” she stated.
