Federated Chief Terry Lundgren Stays In Control

Is it Wall Street Journal week at The Shophound or just department store week at the Wall Street Journal? After last weekend's dissection of luxury stores, Monday's Journal assigned Ellen Byron to go in depth with Federated Department Stores Chairman and CEO Terry Lundgren who is the man charged overseeing with what will soon be a whopping 810 Macy's stores and 40 Bloomingdale's across the U.S. Of course, in Chicago, he will forever be known as the man who killed Marshall Field's. Byron gives us the expected bio and discusses Lundgren's plans for the future of Macy's, but what is most telling is her lead-in, which you will find after then jump.

When Terry Lundgren planned his wedding last summer, he painstakingly deliberated the reception room's layout, chose the menu and handpicked the wine selection. Then he went a step further, designing the wedding gown for his fiancée, Tina Stephan.

"I wanted something very unique, that no one had done before," Mr. Lundgren explains. Over the course of five fittings, during which Ms. Stephan was blindfolded, Mr. Lundgren worked with designer Vera Wang to construct the dress he had in mind. "I envisioned a clean, simple design," he says. Ms. Wang, who says she's never helped a groom make his bride's gown before, convinced him to include a more-dramatic back to the gown but otherwise worked from Mr. Lundgren's drawings. "It was a totally collaborative effort," Ms. Wang says.

Ms. Stephan saw her gown for the first time just before she walked down the aisle.

Too much information about the CEO of one of Americas largest retailers, perhaps? An unusual twist on tradition, at the very least. We can only imagine the mixture of opportunity and dread Vera Wang must have felt when she was demoted to lowly design assistant to the man who could potentially control millions of dollars of revenue for her.

A Clotheshorse Sets Out to Remake Department Stores The Wall Street Journal
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