Dr Pamela Cox presents this three-part series following the journey of the shopgirl from an almost invisible figure in stark Victorian stores, to being the beating heart of modern shops.
Ended
Shopgirls: The True Story of Life Behind the Counter
June 24, 2014
July 8, 2014
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English
During the London Blitz, shopworkers rescued evacuees and served customers from bomb-damaged premises. The war created flexible working opportunities on the shop floor and gave rise to a new concept, the working mum. By the 1960s, teenagers emulated the beautiful shopgirls working in trendy boutiques like Mary Quant's Bazaar in London's Kings Road. Shopgirls were crucial to the success of stores like Biba, where their jobs were more about modelling the clothes and hanging out rather than giving customers the hard sell.
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