National Wholesale Celebrates 64 Years of Comfort and Customer Happiness: A Rags to Riches Story

Since 1952, National Wholesale has built their mail-order women's clothing business from a small mail-order hosiery business to a leading woman's fashion brand.

Thanks to fervent dedication to customer comfort and happiness, the Lexington-based retailer will celebrate 65 years of business in 2017.

Humble Beginnings

It was 1928, The Great Depression had started to take hold. Families were struggling, work was scarce, and children were being displaced. One such child orphaned at the age of 10, along with his three younger siblings, was Eddie Smith, soon-to-be founder of National Wholesale.

It is this humble beginning that created a man that was resourceful, intuitive, and savvy.

With the boom of the economy after WWII, ordering items through the mail was a growing industry and Eddie worked to learn as much as he could at a local mail-order company. What he realized was that caring for the customer is what sets a company apart. His motto became, "Treat each customer as if she were the only one."

With this idea in mind, in 1952 Eddie mailed his first flyer, and National Wholesale was born. He started with hosiery. And developed a personal style of communicating with his customers as if they were family. Then, with the help of his wife Sarah, and her keen eye for fashion, they started offering model coats and loungewear.

By 1962, National was mailing small catalogs all over the country.

22-Million Catalogs Later

Today, Eddie's daughter Lynda is carrying on her father's tradition of responding to customers personally. She also carries on her mother's vision of bringing obtainable fashion into every woman's home. Her daughter, Parker helps with both merchandising and social media by writing their blog, IfTheMuumuuFits.com.

Together, National's focus is the woman who wants comfortable classic clothing at an affordable price. It's a great place to find those classic brands that never go out of style.

To shop National Apparel, visit their website at ShopNational.com.