Peck & Peck

Peck & Peck

Company type	Private (former)
Industry	Retail (women's apparel)
Founded	1888 (1888)
Founder	Edgar Wallace Peck, George H. Peck
Defunct	1991 (1991)
Fate	Bankruptcy; brand acquired and revived by Stein Mart
Headquarters	New York City , United States
Area served	United States
Products	Women's clothing

Peck & Peck was a women's apparel retailer headquartered in New York City, with its flagship store situated at 581 Fifth Avenue.

Renowned for its timeless clothing styles, Peck & Peck, much like Bonwit Teller and B. Altman and Company, epitomized the fashion trends of New York's pre-hippie period following World War II.<ref> It thrived during an era when WASP aesthetics dominated both retail outlets and fashion publications.<ref>

For authors such as Joan Didion, Peck & Peck symbolized a distinct sartorial identity.<ref> Among its signature items was the understated yet elegant A-line dress.

History

Established in 1888 by brothers Edgar Wallace Peck and George H. Peck,<ref> the company originally operated as a hosiery shop near Madison Square.<ref> At the time of Edgar Peck’s passing, Time magazine noted that the siblings had once been required to pay rent daily to a skeptical landlord,<ref> but their enterprise had expanded to 19 locations.<ref> Eventually, Peck & Peck grew to encompass 78 stores nationwide.

The retailer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1974, and in 1976 it was acquired by Minneapolis-based firm Salkin & Linoff. Due to ineffective management combined with a highly decentralized store network, the brand gradually ceased operations and was sold off in segments. During the mid to late 1980s, several stores were divested to H. C. Prange Co. located in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. The final five outlets under Salkin & Linoff were shuttered in January 1991, with remaining assets liquidated through bankruptcy proceedings.

Following Peck & Peck’s decline, other apparel chains such as Ann Taylor and Talbots rose to prominence. Since 2008, the Peck & Peck trademark has been owned by Stein Mart, which uses it for a women's clothing collection.

In August 2020, Stein Mart filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy amid challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, announcing plans to close all of its 279 stores and effectively ending the last vestiges of the Peck & Peck brand. Nevertheless, after Stein Mart relaunched as an online-only retailer independent of its former entity, the Peck & Peck name was revived once more.

External links

• Article from 1990 on Ownership of H.C. Prange
• History and Bankruptcy of Salkin & Linoff
• Collaborative Promotion with Capital Airlines
• Additional Joint Advertising Campaign with Capital Airlines
• Jim Peck Profile, Lead Freedom Rider