Catering to Generations of Brides
When Carlisle’s of Pittsburgh outfitted its first bride with a hat and veil, Grover Cleveland was president, the light bulb was a novelty and nobody had ever heard of the Wright Brothers.
From whirlwind courtships to society weddings, Carlisle’s has supplied women with the fashions of the day--enormous hats, Chantilly lace, even the dreaded “mermaid” look of the 1980s. On glass shelves along the walls of the salon are photographs representing generations of brides who were customers; one, Charlene Ossman, now works there as a consultant.
And--unlike some of the marriages--Carlisle’s has endured.
Blaine Workman, now the company’s vice president, is the fifth generation in his family to work at Carlisle’s. He started off as a stockboy and returned after putting in time as a certified public accountant with a Pittsburgh firm. His sister, Jan Winner, is the store manager and his wife, Lynne, works the floor consulting brides about their choices. Betty Workman’s grandchildren model clothes for ring bearers and flower girls at fashion shows.
“We really browbeat them,” joked Betty Workman, now the company’s president and the mother of Blaine and Jan.
Founded in 1888 by Sophia Carlisle, Betty Workman’s great-grandmother, Carlisle’s is thought to be the nation’s oldest bridal salon. The claim was researched when the business celebrated its centennial, and tentatively confirmed by Vows, a wedding industry trade magazine. So far, nobody has challenged it.
Mrs. Carlisle, pictured in a huge black-and-white portrait on the salon’s walls, started off by running a custom millinery that eventually specialized in wedding headpieces--which, at the time, were customary for a bride to wear along with a Sunday-best dress.
“For a woman to start her own business back in 1888, she was really a woman ahead of her time,” said Workman.
But it was a 14-year-old apprentice milliner, Marie Stokely, who really built the business. She married Mrs. Carlisle’s son and worked at the shop six days a week, still sewing headpieces until she died at age 93.
“She was the boss. This wasn’t ‘Let’s find a job for Grandma,’ ” Workman said.
Wedding gowns overtook hats and veils as the mainstay of the business around World War II. Eventually the store expanded to its current size of three floors and 12,000 square feet on a blue-collar street on Pittsburgh’s north side. A tuxedo shop leases space there, and wedding consultants and seamstresses are on hand.
As Workman chatted with a reporter, Ms. Winner was busy helping a relieved bride into the satin gown, veil and elbow-length gloves she had chosen at the last minute.
The bride, Jeanne Hall, 28, said she went to Carlisle’s in desperation three days before her wedding because a shop in Ohio had bungled her order twice--first getting the dress in the wrong color (yellowish-white, instead of white), then getting it in the wrong fabric.
“I didn’t have any of the underclothes, my gloves, my veil,” Ms. Hall said. “When you’re the bride, you’re front and center . . . you want to look good.”
Originally from Pittsburgh, she remembered Carlisle’s--where she had bought her prom dress--and came in asking for help.
