william leach, a historian talks about these palaces of consumption, allowing women to see and be seen and fashionable clothing. thus, changing shopping rituals forever. advertising in retail shop displays. see this window? this does not happen too much today, does it? people gawking in the window to see what the new products are going to be. it makes high-fashion more visible. women will become more interested in new clothing and owning new clothing. by the beginning of the 20th century, ready-to-wear clothing was available in almost all marketplaces. this is a shirtwaist, we see here, from the haberdasher in 1896 and here in "good housekeeping" from 1909. this shirtwaist and observers said was the one thing every woman wears from the fat cook in the kitchen to the woman who dresses upon incomes of millions. this on politically correct -- unpolitically correct statement, of course, merely highlights how universal the shirtwaist was. everyone was wearing it. as clothing became available in these ready-to-wear establishments, they needed to be pretty simple, right? look at it, take it h