Nordstrom’s latest ‘Make Room for Shoes’ campaign, featuring Rothy’s, operates on a principle familiar to any lingerie historian: dedicated space transforms perception. The department store, marking 125 years, has long understood that isolating a category for focused presentation elevates it. This mirrors the early 20th-century shift when retailers first created intimate ‘lingerie departments,’ moving corsets and camisoles from general dry goods into curated, brand-specific displays that framed them as foundational to modern dressing.
Rothy’s, with its knit uppers made from recycled plastic, enters this retail tradition. Its emphasis on sustainable, design-led construction finds a parallel in the post-war innovations of brands like Warner’s, which introduced Lastex into foundations, marrying new materials with contemporary form. When Rothy’s CEO Dayna Quanbeck speaks of shoes defined by ‘how they are made’ and ‘built to last,’ she articulates a philosophy that has always driven intimate apparel: the unseen engineering that delivers daily comfort and style.
Nordstrom’s platform, by granting Rothy’s limited-edition styles and exclusive colorways, functions as a contemporary version of the branded shop-in-shop. This tactic was perfected in lingerie by houses like La Perla, which used controlled environments to present their collections as cohesive wardrobe essentials. The campaign reminds us that whether for the foot or the form, dedicated retail space is a statement that the category merits a deeper, more considered look.
Originally reported by WWD