In the 1930s, three Dallas, Texas Jewish sisters — Elsie, Edna, and Louise Frankfurt — were the first to design, develop, and market attractive, comfortable, and affordable maternity clothes. These beautifully fashioned dresses enabled women to maintain their public and professional lives while pregnant. Kay Goldman tells the story of these sisters and their success in her captivating book, Dressing Modern Maternity: The Frankfurt Sisters of Dallas and the Page Boy Label. The Frankfurt sisters created a chain of their own retail stores, called “Page Boy” stores. Their marketing was so successful that department stores across the nation started selling the “Page Boy” maternity dresses. Their efforts ultimately sparked the creation of the enormous maternity dress industry.
This fascinating tale of the Frankfurt sisters provides the reader with insight into the world of Southern Jewry and how Jewish entrepreneurs developed and thrived in the Deep South. The book also serves to document the crucial role Jewish women have played in shaping the American Jewish experience. Bibliography, index, notes, photos (b&w) and illustrations.