Arnold Aronson, a retailing executive best known for reviving the financial fortunes of Saks Fifth Avenue in the early 1980s, in part by appealing to a younger clientele, died on Tuesday at his home in Manhattan. He was 85.

The death was confirmed by a family spokeswoman, who did not give the cause.

Mr. Aronson, who never retired, spent more than three decades operating an array of national stores and chains, including Saks, before becoming a consultant. He had been the principal director of retail strategies at the consulting firm Kurt Salmon Associates since 1997.

“Arnold was one of the top department store merchants of his era,” said the designer Ralph Lauren, a supplier to Saks. At his death, Mr. Aronson had sat on the Lauren corporate board for 19 years.

As chairman and chief executive of Saks from 1979 to 1983, Mr. Aronson sought to erase what he called its “traditional dowager image” and focus instead on a younger customer base, mainly baby boomers at the time.