Parisian

Ghost Corp Apparel — resurrecting iconic corporate ghosts.

Parisian began in downtown Birmingham, Alabama, in 1877 as the Parisian Dry Goods and Millinery Company, founded by sisters Estella and Bertha Sommers. It grew from a ladies’ store into a polished regional department-store institution, selling fashion, cosmetics, home goods, and the sort of gift-wrap-ready merchandise that made an errand feel like an occasion.

The Hess and Holiner families acquired the business in the early 1920s. Under Emil Hess and Leonard Salit, Parisian built a reputation around customer service, free shipping and wrapping, generous returns, and an interest-free credit plan. As Birmingham sprawled outward, Parisian followed shoppers to suburban stores and then to mall anchors across Alabama, the Southeast, and eventually the Midwest.

After going public in 1983, surviving a brief 1988-89 ownership episode with Australia-based L.J. Hooker, and expanding beyond the South, Parisian was sold to Proffitt’s in 1996. Proffitt’s became Saks Incorporated in 1998. Belk bought the 38-store Parisian business from Saks effective October 2, 2006; the Birmingham headquarters remained only for transition, and the principal stores were rebranded as Belk during 2007. Retail consolidation: because apparently every elegant fitting room eventually meets a spreadsheet.

Our Parisian collection celebrates Birmingham department-store glamour: polished mall escalators, ribboned boxes, dependable sales associates, and a Southern retail name that made “just browsing” sound considerably more upscale.