Spiegel

Spiegel was one of America's most iconic fashion catalog companies, founded in 1865 in Chicago as a furniture store that evolved into a legendary women's fashion catalog business at its peak in the late 20th century. Spiegel's catalogs were synonymous with accessible fashion for American women who lived outside major shopping centers, offering current styles with the convenience of home delivery decades before e-commerce made this the norm.

The company filed for bankruptcy in 2003 and subsequently closed its operations, ending a catalog legacy that had made Spiegel a household name for mid-priced women's fashion. At its peak, Spiegel was known for its contemporary fashion sensibility, credit financing options that made purchases accessible, and the Eddie Bauer catalog which it also produced. The Eddie Bauer catalog business continued under separate ownership after Spiegel's closure.

Spiegel's catalog model pioneered many practices that online fashion retail now employs—curated fashion editing, home delivery, and credit-facilitated purchasing. While the Spiegel brand no longer operates, its legacy lives in the catalog and direct-to-consumer fashion retailing approach that brands like Chadwick's, Blair, and the continuing Eddie Bauer carry forward.