Bradshaw
Jim Bradshaw
The eulogies for Italian icon Valentino Garavani, who died last week, are a reminder that he was not high society’s first fashion dictator, nor the first to make a huge fortune from it. Lafayette native Henri Bendel sold hats, dresses, handbags, and high-class accoutrements to the elite of New York and Paris for decades, and the landmark store that he built on New York’s Fifth Avenue remained in business for nearly 125 years…