Marvin Traub (PatrickMcMullan)
The New York retail scene has lost a luminary like no other.
Marvin S. Traub — the legendary merchant whose wild ambition and theatrical flair transformed Bloomingdale’s into an international style mecca in the 1970s and 80s — has died of cancer. He was 87.
Renowned for an unmatched capacity to “think big,” the media-savvy retail mogul staged splashy, star-studded events to raise the profile of the once-sleepy department store.
An early backer of Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein and Halston, Traub introduced their styles to American A-listers like Jackie O and Lady Bird Johnson — even as he scoured Europe and Asia for exotic fashions and furnishings.
“He is an icon in every sense of the word,” Ralph Lauren said yesterday. “I will miss my friend.”
In 1976, Traub famously recruited then-First Lady Betty Ford to cut the ribbon for a store opening near Washington, DC.
Traub’s greatest publicity coup, however, was to lure Queen Elizabeth II that same year to visit the Bloomingdale’s flagship store on 59th Street with her husband, Prince Phillip.
The Queen “didn’t choose Saks, and she didn’t choose Bergdorf — she chose Bloomingdale’s,” Traub once enthused in an interview with The Post.
Traub died yesterday afternoon at his Manhattan home surrounded by family. Having fought a lengthy battle with bladder cancer, Traub had been hospitalized just before the July 4 weekend.
In an over-the-top event that greatly goosed sales, Traub in 1980 wowed shoppers with a display of priceless royal robes that were borrowed from the Chinese government.
Aside from his sky’s-the-limit savvy for creating buzz, the unflappably energetic Traub was “always talking about what was new and what was young and relevant,” according to Michael Gould, who took the helm at Bloomingdale’s upon Traub’s departure in 1991.
Famous for his seemingly inexhaustible energy, Traub had been working in the offices of his New York consulting firm, Marvin Traub Associates, as recently as two weeks ago.
After graduating from Harvard Business School, Traub took a position at Bloomingdale’s in 1950. He rose rapidly through the ranks to become president in 1969 and chairman and CEO in 1978.
He is survived by his wife, Lee Laufer, and their three children, Andrew, James and Margaret, as well as four grandchildren.