Abstract
The Women’s Institute of St. Paul, Minnesota, was launched by local middle-class homemakers in 1939. The launch prompted national attention by staging the biggest fashion show in the Midwest. Following the show’s success, the institute began working closely with St. Paul merchants to revitalize downtown fashion businesses, which were losing revenue to neighboring Minneapolis. St. Paul women shoppers were favoring Minneapolis over St. Paul because it offered wider fashion choices, better quality and affordable products, and superior facilities and services. The cooperation between the Women’s Institute and St. Paul’s fashion merchants quickly turned commerce around and continued to be fruitful for decades. By framing local growth and the increase in female consumption of fashion as a woman’s civic duty and social responsibility, the Women’s Institute created a bridge between women’s private goals and community objectives as well as leading to economic prosperity and significant contributions to the rise of American fashion.
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