NEW YORK — With last month’s passing of Priscilla Kidder, the bridal industry lost one of its pioneers, who helped transform what was once a cottage industry into a $32 billion affair.
Anticipating an upswing in marriages after World War II, Kidder and her husband, James, a Harvard graduate, opened a bridal boutique on Boston’s Newbury Street in 1945. Five years later, they ventured into the wholesale business under the Priscilla of Boston label.
In its heyday, the company generated more than $20 million in sales and employed 100-plus people, but was best known for dressing first daughters Julie and Tricia Nixon, and Luci Johnson, and now-Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R., N.C.), as well as Grace Kelly’s bridesmaids.
“Priscilla made the bridal business a legitimate fashion business,” said Jim Hjelm, who worked for Priscilla of Boston for 20 years before venturing out on his own. “Priscilla was the Vera Wang of her time. Priscilla’s name was on every young girl’s lips.”
Described by executives as “determined,” “revolutionary,” “uncompromising” and “definite,” the sandy-haired Bostonian decided to start her own business after overseeing the bridal department at R.H. White department store.
“She felt she could do a better job than what was being done out there,” said Robert Kidder, her eldest son, who worked at the company at one time. “She wouldn’t put her name on anything that wasn’t done to perfection.”
Yolanda Cellucci, owner of Yolanda’s, a Boston specialty store known for its bridal selection, said Kidder was so exacting that she routinely supervised weddings of the famous and not-so-famous to put brides at ease. She was also known to sew the bride’s name and wedding date into the hem of her gowns.
“Priscilla was vibrant and exciting, and had a lust for this business, which is something many people don’t have,” Cellucci said. “A lot of people in this business today just cut dresses to make money.”
Kidder was also a bit of a renegade. With her definite views about what dresses should look like and how they should be sold, Kidder started hosting trunk shows in the Fifties.
“She would go to Woody’s [Woodward & Lothrop] in Washington, to Bullock’s on the West Coast and to other stores to preach quality and beauty,” her son said.
Offering a signature line with prices up to $8,000 wholesale, a lower-priced contemporary line, romantic, petite and moderate-priced dresses, as well as bridesmaid dresses and head pieces among other bridal categories, helped her win points with customers, said bridal designer Ann Barge, who started her career at Priscilla of Boston.
“No one else will ever have that kind of impact,” Barge said. “Aside from dressing the daughters of important people, she designed an incomparable product. It was the dress every girl wanted.”
Instead of trudging to their mothers’ dressmakers or a small bridal shop, as was the norm in the Fifties, Kidder gave brides-to-be options, said Todd Bagwell, commercial director of Ulla-Maija. “She revolutionized the bridal market,” he said.
Kidder managed that with her own bit of flair. One of her favorite sayings was that marriage was an act for security not virginity, Hjelm paraphrased.
“There were other lines, but no other person had the personality she had,” Barge said.
Cellucci agreed, “She said it as it was. She didn’t beat around the bush. She was definite about what her image was. She kept her classic beautiful look throughout the years. Today, there’s everything in terms of styles.”
In a 1985 interview with WWD, Kidder said, “The youngsters are more spoiled. It’s too bad. I’m not saying they’re not nice or anything, it’s just they’re more difficult to please. Children have been given everything, regardless of whether they come from money or not.”
Despite that drawback, it was the personal interaction — something she said was less prevalent in ready-to-wear — that appealed to Kidder. Hjelm recalled one “very hot” week in August they camped out in the Lincoln Bedroom, doing alterations for Johnson and her 11 bridesmaids. At that time, WWD reporters dug out enough information about Johnson’s dress to run a front-page sketch the Friday before the wedding that was close enough to infuriate Lady Bird Johnson’s press secretary.
During the Nixon administration, Kidder also provided scores of evening gowns for daughters Julie and Tricia Nixon. Kidder’s friend, Stanley Marcus, helped line up some of the celebrity clients, including Grace Kelly. Kidder designed full-length silk organza and picture hats for the Princess of Monaco’s attendants.
When union leaders threatened to protest outside Johnson’s wedding because Priscilla of Boston was not a union operation, Kidder arranged for the dresses to be cut and “supposedly sewn” in a union factory owned by one of her husband’s college classmates, Hjelm said. The union label was sewn in the dress, he added.
More than anything, the designer was impressed by the craftsmanship of a bridal gown, her son said.
“If it was a beautiful dress made by hand, she liked it,” he said. “If someone was just pounding out dresses, it didn’t resonate with her.”
She also had a keen eye about the path of the bridal business. In a 1987 interview with WWD, Kidder said, “With the discounting the way it is, I’m not too sure what the industry is setting itself up for. Everybody is out to make a fast buck and stores aren’t as service-oriented as they used to be.”