- Nordstrom, a Fortune 500 fashion retailer, has hired Catherine Bloom as its first director of luxury styling. Bloom was previously a personal stylist for Neiman Marcus and has worked with countless celebrities and business executives.
Catherine Bloom is so well-known among Hollywood stars, C-suite executives, and the social elite, that they often just refer to her by her first name. And now Nordstrom gets to claim her as the company’s first director of luxury styling.
“Catherine will play a crucial role in fulfilling our purpose of making customers feel good and look their best,” Pete Nordstrom, president of Nordstrom Inc., said in a statement shared with Fortune. “Bringing Catherine to our team is like getting the Michael Jordan of personal styling. We are treating this like a big deal, because it is.”
Bloom, a veteran Neiman Marcus personal stylist, once had her own boutique, which she called Bloom’s Room, that came equipped with four dressing rooms and a variety of luxury fashions. The boutique, which was staffed by five full-time assistants, was tucked away on the second floor of the Neiman Marcus store in Beverly Hills, Calif., and was a hidden gem for her clients.
While clients didn’t need an appointment to visit, Bloom’s Room wasn’t advertised, and “when people walk in there, they generally have been there before, if they’re not being shown by somebody how to find it,” Christina Binkley, a former fashion columnist for The Wall Street Journal,said in a 2016 interview.
But now, Bloom is ushering in a new era of luxury personal styling with Nordstrom, a Fortune 500 fashion retailer with more than 360 stores worldwide. As an homage to Bloom’s past experience, Nordstrom is transforming its Melrose Place location in Los Angeles into the “Catherine Bloom for Nordstrom” storefront for Bloom to host clients, Women’s Wear Daily first reported.
Bloom got her start in the fashion industry at the ripe age of 10, according to The New York Times, when she’d visit department store I. Magnin and put together outfits for her grandmother. She started working at Neiman Marcus at age 18 while enrolled at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles, where she majored in merchandising and retail.
Bloom is highly revered in the luxury fashion world, and has reportedly styled countless Hollywood stars, business executives, and famous socialites.
“All [of my clients] are in different points of their lives,” Bloom said in a statement shared with Fortune. “It could be a woman in Palm Beach needing a season of clothes, a woman in finance, board members, doctors, a man wanting to update and look more current. It’s made-to-measure, it’s special orders, it’s celebrities, musicians, it’s CEO’s, athletes, hotel owners, royalty. It’s everyone looking for the power of dressing.”
But she’s never been one to share her specific client list.
“When you’re reading about high-profile people in the news and on the red carpet, currently most of them are dressed by Catherine. That’s the kind of currency she has without exploiting her clients’ names,” Tracy Paul of Tracy Paul & Co., Bloom’s personal business manager, told WWD. “People fly in from all over the world to meet with Catherine.”
In her previous role with Neiman Marcus, Bloom didn’t charge clients a rate, but rather made a commission from the clothing she sold. She’s kept her commission earned under wraps.
“I think Nordstrom will be influenced by Catherine, particularly as she will be part of the buying team and has rare access to certain designers,” Bella Hignett, a London-based personal stylist who has worked with presenters, actors, authors, business leaders, and some minor royals, told Fortune. “I think perhaps more emerging designers will be brought on board and I think Catherine will be vital to the designs they stock and their own designs.”
Nordstrom’s move to bring in Bloom is wise, considering high-end retailers and department stores “rely heavily on prominent stylists in driving sales, bringing in new customers, and fostering existing client relationships in the luxury sector,” Jeanel Alvarado, founder and CEO of retail strategy firm RetailBoss, told Fortune.
The company’s approach in reinvigorating its personal-styling options “echoes a pattern seen by other luxury department stores attempting to lure affluent customers back into their stores by creating personalized experiences you just can’t get shopping online,” Alvarado said.
Nordstrom CEO Erik Nordstrom had actually hinted at this move back in 2022 when the company did away with its failed subscription box service, Trunk Club. Nordstrom had to take a $197 million write-down on the service three years after acquiring it in 2014 for $350 million, which forced a $10 million third-quarter net loss. The company stopped dedicating stylists to Trunk Club in 2021, instead having full-time stylists work individually with customers, according to Retail Dive.
“I want to be clear. This move reflects our belief and commitment to styling and we are dedicated to growing and investing in these services,” Erik Nordstrom told analysts in 2022.
