# When Pilates Went Shopping at Henri Bendel - Author: PilatesStyle - Date: 2026-10-27 - Category: LifeStyle - Canonical: https://pilatesstyle.com/article/when-pilates-went-shopping-at-henri-bendel Long before Pilates studios became fixtures in fashionable neighborhoods, Joseph Pilates brought his method to one of New York’s most stylish department stores. In 1965, a shopper at Henri Bendel could discover more than the latest fashion. On the store’s top floor, beside its beauty salon, was a Pilates studio—complete with the unusual apparatus Joseph Pilates had designed to transform the way people moved. The setting was quintessential New York: a fashionable department store, a beauty salon, and a new approach to physical conditioning sharing the same address. But the story of Pilates at Henri Bendel is more than a charming piece of retail history. It is an early example of the method reaching beyond its original studio and finding a place in the wider culture. Joseph Pilates opened the Henri Bendel studio during his lifetime. According to the historical findings in a federal court decision about the Pilates name, the studio opened in 1965, and Naja Corey, who had trained with Pilates, taught there until 1972. Kathleen “Kathy” Grant, another teacher trained by Pilates, succeeded her and remained at the Bendel studio until it closed in 1988. For more than two decades, Pilates had a home inside one of Manhattan’s best-known fashion destinations. **A Different Kind of Department Store Experience** Henri Bendel was known for introducing customers to new designers and fresh ideas. Under the leadership of Geraldine Stutz, who took over the store in 1957, it became a destination for women looking for something distinctive. Its famous “Street of Shops” brought together boutiques and designers in an inventive retail setting. A Pilates studio fit that spirit of discovery. Customers could come to Bendel’s for fashion and encounter a method of movement that was still unfamiliar to much of the public. In the years before Pilates became a household name, its apparatus could have looked curious to a newcomer. There were springs, a barrel, a chair and equipment designed to guide and challenge the body. Pilates historian Elaine Ewing’s archive includes a photograph of Joseph Pilates seated on a Wunda Chair outside Henri Bendel while equipment was being carried into the store. It is a wonderful image: the inventor and his equipment arriving at a temple of New York style. **From Naja Corey to Kathy Grant** The teachers who carried the work forward were central to the studio’s story. Naja Corey was its instructor from the opening through 1972. She was followed by Kathy Grant, now recognized as one of the Pilates elders—the teachers who studied with Joseph and Clara Pilates and helped pass the method to future generations. Grant’s long tenure gave the Henri Bendel studio a lasting place in Pilates history. She taught there for 16 years, continuing until the facility closed in 1988. Her presence also connects the glamorous setting to the deeper legacy of the method. Behind the department store location was a serious practice, taught by instructors with direct ties to its founder. Students who entered through Henri Bendel encountered work that had traveled from Joseph Pilates to a new generation of teachers. **A Vision That Still Feels Modern** Today, the idea of combining movement, fashion and personal care feels entirely familiar. Pilates studios are part of the landscape of hotels, shopping districts and wellness destinations. Activewear has become fashion, and Pilates has become a cultural force. Yet the studio at Henri Bendel shows that this connection has a history. In the 1960s, a customer could find Pilates steps away from a beauty salon, in a store celebrated for knowing what its customers might want before they knew it themselves. There is something fitting about that location. Fashion can change how we present ourselves to the world. Pilates can change how we move through it. At Henri Bendel, the two shared an address. The studio is gone, and the Henri Bendel retail era eventually came to an end. But the image remains: Joseph Pilates, his equipment and a department store ready to make room for a new idea.