A Lingerie Shop Celebrates 100 Years on New York's Lower East Side
Owner Miriam Kohn upholds the family business commitment to customer service at A.W. Kaufman
In Miriam Kohn's lingerie shop on New York City's Lower East Side, garment racks stuffed with robes, negligees and dresses cover almost every inch of space in a store that's been around for 100 years.
Kohn is not 100 but her cash register is, dating back to when her grandparents first sold silk stockings and cotton panties. The ornate register with its push buttons and hand crank still works. And Kohn, in the tradition of her parents, grandparents and other shop owners who opened up businesses in the neighborhood in the early 1900s, personalizes service molded to each customer's taste, size and budget (and personality).
"We used to have a line at the door, and it was myself, my parents, and we had two salespeople at that time. People would wait outside."
Long time customer and veterinarian Amy Attas travels from her home on the Upper East for nightshirts, camisoles and tank tops on a day when she's not tending to cats and dogs in their home. And when Attas is short on time, Kohn will FaceTime with her.
"If I see something, I'll call and she'll get it for me," relayed Attas, who has shopped at A.W. Kaufman for 40 years. "And then everything magically gets shipped to my house. She has beautiful styles with great prices."
A More Personal Shopping Experience
A.W. Kaufman has been around since 1924 when Regina and Abraham Kaufman, immigrants from Hungary, opened first on Delancey Street and then to a cozy narrow storefront at 73 Orchard Street. The building was built in 1900. Eight blocks long, it was once a destination for coats and jackets, underwear, towels, linens, socks and hats sold from pushcarts and storefronts in a crowded jumble of buyers, sellers and tailors.
The Lower East Side was one of the few neighborhoods where you could shop on Sundays. "Blue Laws" dating back to 1656 forbid "all manner, of public selling or offering for sale of any property upon Sunday" in New York. Because so many shopkeepers closed on Saturdays in observance of the Jewish Sabbath, closing on a Sunday prevented their main revenue day. But risking fines, shops opened anyway, attracting hordes of bargain hunters who desired a more personal shopping experience than department stores.
"Shopkeepers would pool their money to pay the fines," said David Favaloro, Senior Director of Curatorial Affairs for the Tenement Museum which anchors the neighborhood at the corner of Orchard and Delancey. "Shopkeepers would take turns with paying if they got ticketed for operating on Sunday in violation of the blue laws."
The ban was finally repealed in 1976. The neighborhood began to shift and change. Sons and daughters of shopkeepers attended college or moved away. They had no interest in earning a living selling linens and towels. Stores closed. Rents doubled and tripled. Buildings were sold. Picky New Yorkers shopped in department stores and then online.
Today, the neighborhood has been invaded by smoke shops, restaurants and bars. And by a twenty-something crowd who bring in friends and credit cards with an eye out for vintage items from the 1980s.
Kohn works behind the original wood counter in front of shelves filled with plastic bins of designer bras, panties and peignoirs.
Kohn once knew every shop owner. "I know nobody on my block," she said. "I know not a soul, which is kind of sad."
"People came down with their families," Kohn recalled. "We used to have a line at the door, and it was myself, my parents, and we had two salespeople at that time. People would wait outside. You saw the same people every second week. They would make a pilgrimage with the family. They'd go from here to Ratners or Grand Dairy to eat."
Kohn is the only one of her two siblings to join the family business. When her mother, Phylllis, married Ben Kohn in 1957, he joined the business, expanding the store's selection from silk stockings, handkerchiefs and blouses to designer lingerie. Miriam's first memory of visiting the store was when she was six, with counters overflowing with cardboard boxes filled with undergarments under tin ceilings and hanging lights.
"I liked to hang out with my grandparents," Kohn recalled. "When I was tired, my grandfather would push the boxes on the side and make room for me to lay down to take a nap. And my grandmother used to sit between the two counters and petit point or needlepoint. Those," she added, "are the good old days."
"My father used to say, 'you're always better off with high end. Even if someone buys one, they'll like it, they'll enjoy it, they'll keep it, they'll be happy with it, whereas things that are literally disposable are not."
After his in-laws died, Mr. Kohn purchased inventory while Mrs. Kohn handled the fitting, sales and selection. Since she was 14, Miriam Kohn has been waiting on customers, sorting merchandise and ringing up sales. College, she decided, wasn't for her so she came onboard on a full-time basis after one semester at Brooklyn College. And she never left.
She accompanied her father on buying trips to wholesalers as he changed the inventory to more expensive designer lingerie.
"We used to choose together. He'd turn over the garment inside and look at the seams," Kohn recalled. "I used to say, 'Tatte (Yiddish for father), what are you looking at?'"
Her father replied, "'I want to see how the seams are made. I want to look at the fabric."
"He was very into quality. He started bringing in a little bit more in the lingerie department, like nightgowns, and then it just spiraled into all high end," Kohn said. "My father used to say, 'you're always better off with high end. Even if someone buys one, they'll like it, they'll enjoy it, they'll keep it, they'll be happy with it, whereas things that are literally disposable are not. And customers come back when they buy something that they enjoy and it lasts."
Kohn learned to measure sizes simply by looking at each customer's proportions, a specialty learned from her mother. Customers who have purchased ill-fitting bras with incorrect cup sizes or fit come to her to be fitted properly.
"I can look at someone and know their bra size," she said. "It's kind of a lost art. Many places do not know how to fit a bra. They don't know how to fit the right shape or the right style."
In the narrow store stretched from east to west on Orchard between Grand and Broome Street filled with new and vintage clothing all under plastic for protection, Kohn can't pinpoint a best seller.
"It depends on the day. Some days it's sleepwear, some days it's clothing. There's no rhyme or reason," she said. "As my father says, it's an open door."
With an old-fashioned sense of privacy, her social media consists of a basic website page and an Instagram account managed by her niece. Locals and celebrities recommend others while costume designers know where to find her. Kohn will not divulge her age, if she owns the building, or the names of customers. But they keep coming.
Customer Service and Fit
"I'm not interested in competing. I'm a very small, old fashioned mom and pop store," she said. "We're about 'Welcome. Can I help you?' when you step inside."
"One thing that hasn't changed is the importance of service and fit," notes Larissa King, Assistant Professor of Fashion Design, Intimate Apparel, at the Fashion Institute of Technology. "This will always be a lucrative business because everyone needs underwear."
As styles, fabrics and tastes have changed, so has Kohn's clientele. Now, many of her customers are women in their twenties, women from Australia and Europe, and celebrities.
"The bottom line is really good customer service that you can't get from online shopping or anywhere else. She knows her business."
"There's a whole new generation. They just want to look," Kohn said. "I tell them, 'This is here, this is there. You're more than welcome to look if you want help.' Sometimes they'll say, 'Can you help me?' My old customers always come in and say, 'Miriam, I'm looking for a nightgown.' And I'll ask questions like, long, short, whatever and I'll pull, I'll pick, and we'll choose from there. That's usually the way we always did our business. We're about helping the customer."
Attas agrees.
"Miriam prides herself on customer service and that sets her apart," she said. "The bottom line is really good customer service that you can't get from online shopping or anywhere else. She knows her business."
After 100 years, the next century is a mystery.
"I'm not going anywhere," Kohn said. "If my niece wants the store, she can have it. If not, we'll sell off everything and wave goodbye."
