click image to enlarge Abercrombie & Fitch, Ponciana Plaza, Palm Beach, 1959 Photo courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C.

click image to enlarge Adams Hats shop, Washington, D.C., circa 1950 Photo courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C.

click image to enlarge Jax Stores on Union Street, Glasgow, 1955 Arcade entrances such as this one, with glazed display areas lining a passage or bay leading to the shop entrance set back from the street, were once common in drapers', haberdashers', and other shops in Glasgow.

click image to enlarge Winters Jewelry store, Wichita, Kan., featured elaborate signage. Also shown are Klothes Kloset and Recreation Lanes, a bowling alley on the second floor. Circa 1956. Photo courtesy of Wichita State University Libraries' Department of Special Collections, Howard Eastwood Collection.

click image to enlarge At Jenkins Music Co., Wichita, Kan., display windows promoting a Hi-Fi Festival feature home entertainment consoles, portable phonograph and reel-to-reel tape players, and photos of disc jockeys Al Lohman and Phil Rose from Wichita radio station KFBI. Circa 1959. Photo courtesy of Wichita State University Libraries' Department of Special Collections, Howard Eastwood Collection.

Specialty stores all looked similar and provided a conventional customer experience in the 1950s and 1960s. In that era, storefronts and signage tended to be generic, and branding was not nearly as important as merchandise, pricing, and customer service.

Although most apparel was still purchased through department stores and mail-order catalogs, independent clothiers were beginning to make their mark on the retail landscape. Lerner Shops—today part of The Limited group—found early success catering to female shoppers with a wide array of clothing and accessories. Abercrombie & Fitch, an elite sporting goods retailer established just before the turn of the 20th century, was rapidly expanding in the 1950s, with stores in Chicago and San Francisco, winter stores in Palm Beach and Sarasota, Fla., and summer stores in Bayhead, N. J., and Southampton, N.Y. The chain was purchased by The Limited in 1988 and restructured as a lifestyle brand aimed at teens.

Another specialty store forerunner was Talbots, which launched its first store in the late 1940s in a 17th-century colonial frame house in a small suburb of Boston and offered tailored, high-end women’s clothing. Talbots remains a leading specialty retailer, with comfortable, homey store environments individually designed to fit each location.

Millinery shops were familiar softline retailers in the 1950s. Most were run by local entrepreneurs and carried every imaginable style of hats from pillboxes to large-brim bonnets with feathers.

Hardline specialty stores also were emerging in mid-20th century. Among them was Pearl Vision, which opened its first store in Savannah, Ga., in 1961. The optical chain changed the retail experience by providing complete eye exams and selling frames in the same location. Today, Pearl Vision has stores throughout the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and the Caribbean, and its concept has been embraced by other retailers.

The late 1950s was huge for New York jewelry retailer Tiffany & Co. With the 1958 publishing of Truman Capote’s short novel, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, the store gained instant celebrity. Later, Audrey Hepburn's portrayal of Holly Golightly in the film adaptation forever associated Tiffany’s with romance. Today, a box with the Tiffany name is a gift to be cherished.