Betty Ann Halbreich (IPA: [ˈhælbraɪç];[1] née Samuels; November 17, 1927 – August 24, 2024) was an American personal shopper, stylist, and author known for her career at the New York luxury department store Bergdorf Goodman, where she served as Director of Solutions. Her 2015 memoir, titled I'll Drink to That: A Life in Style, with a Twist, was featured on The New York Times Best Seller list.
Betty Halbreich | |
|---|---|
| Born | Betty Ann Samuels November 17, 1927 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | August 24, 2024 (aged 96) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Occupations |
|
| Spouse |
Sonny Halbreich
(m. 1947; died 2004) |
| Children | 2; including Kathy |
Early life
editHalbreich was born Betty Ann Samuels in Chicago on November 17, 1927, to Morton Samuels and Carol Freshman, who divorced shortly after her birth.[2][3][4][5] Her mother married Harry Stoll, a businessman, and she up in an affluent Jewish neighborhood in the South Side of Chicago.[2][4][6] Her stepfather who ran department stores and her mother, Carol, owned a bookstore.[7][5]
Her family were secular German Jews who also celebrated Christmas. Her parents employed many servants at their Chicago home, including European cooks and a nursemaid.[8] Originally she wanted to be a painter or cartoonist, and she enrolled at the Art Institute of Chicago.[5] She also studied at Colorado College.[2] Around this time, while vacationing in Miami Beach, she met Sonny Halbreich, the son of a wealthy hotel developer who owned Uwana Wash Frocks, a housecoat and bathrobe manufacturing company.[2][9] They married in 1947 and moved to New York, where she lived the life of a Manhattan socialite.[2][10]
Career
editHalbreich's marriage was unhappy, due to her husband's drinking and frequent affairs.[2][11] She attempted suicide and was admitted to a mental institution.[12][13] Upon recovery, she began seeking employment, and worked in a series of designer showrooms on Seventh Avenue and later for Chester Weinberg and Geoffrey Beene before being hired at Bergdorf Goodman in 1976 as a sales associate.[10][7] On her suggestion, the store created a personal shopping office for Halbreich. Her first client was the socialite Babe Paley.[5] In her capacity as the director of solutions at Bergdorf's, Halbreich has served celebrity clients including Hollywood personalities, socialites, and politicians such as Al Gore, Liza Minnelli, and Meryl Streep.[5] She assisted in the styling for the cast of Sex and the City and Gossip Girl, styled casts for Broadway shows, worked as a style consultant for Woody Allen films, collaborated with costume designers Santo Loquasto and Jeffrey Kurland, and worked with William Ivey Long, Ann Roth, and Jane Greenwood.[5]
In 1997 she wrote the memoir Secrets of a Fashion Therapist.[5] In 2015 she published her second memoir, entitled I'll Drink to That: A Life in Style, with a Twist. A third book of her writings, No One Has Seen It All, will be released in April 2025 with a foreword by the writer Lena Dunham.[14][15]
In 2013 she was featured in the documentary Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf's, which raised her public profile.[2][16] She remained a salaried employee of Bergdorf Goodman until her death.[2]
Personal life
editHalbreich and her husband had two children, Kathy Halbreich and John Halbreich.[5] Though Betty and Sonny Halbreich separated after two decades of marriage, they never divorced, and were legally married until his death in 2004.[8][9] Beginning in her sixties, she was in a long term relationship with Jim Dipple.[2]
The year that Halbreich and her husband married, they moved into an apartment on Park Avenue on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, which would be her home for the rest of her life.[2][17][18] She died from cancer at a hospital in Manhattan on August 24, 2024, at the age of 96.[2][3]
References
edit- ^ "Still Asking Betty Halbreich". The New Yorker. October 17, 2013.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Traub, Alex (August 29, 2024). "Betty Halbreich, 96, 'Most Famous Personal Shopper in the World,' Dies". The New York Times. p. A1. Retrieved August 29, 2024.
- ^ a b "Betty Halbreich, Bergdorf's Legendary Personal Shopper, Dead at 96". WWD. August 24, 2024. Retrieved August 24, 2024.
- ^ a b Donahue, Wendy (March 29, 2019). "Betty Halbreich: A life in style, with a few twists". Chicago Tribune.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Thurman, Judith (November 12, 2012). "Ask Betty". The New Yorker.
- ^ "Betty Halbreich". HarperCollins Publishers. Archived from the original on April 17, 2020. Retrieved September 25, 2019.
- ^ a b Tomlin, Annie (March 8, 2013). "Betty Halbreich – Bergdorf Goodman Personal Shopping". refinery29.com.
- ^ a b "People – Betty Halbreich". WNYC. Retrieved August 29, 2024.
- ^ a b "Paid Notice: Deaths Halbreich, Irwin (Sonny)". The New York Times. June 1, 2004. Retrieved August 24, 2024.
- ^ a b "Bergdorf's Legend Betty Halbreich On Beauty And Aging". Into The Gloss. July 18, 2016.
- ^ "Review: I'll Drink To That". www.thejc.com. Archived from the original on September 25, 2019. Retrieved September 25, 2019.
- ^ "Book review of I'll Drink to That by Betty Halbreich". 40+ Style. October 17, 2014. Archived from the original on September 25, 2019. Retrieved September 25, 2019.
- ^ "Betty Halbreich". February 10, 2015. Archived from the original on September 25, 2019. Retrieved September 25, 2019.
- ^ "Instagram". www.instagram.com. Retrieved August 8, 2024.
- ^ No One Has Seen It All. Running Press Book Publishers. August 5, 2024. ISBN 978-0-7624-8856-8. Archived from the original on August 8, 2024. Retrieved August 8, 2024.
- ^ "'Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf's' documentary". EW.com. Archived from the original on August 27, 2024. Retrieved May 11, 2020.
- ^ Shaw, Dan (August 18, 2013). "Her Home Away From Bergdorf's". The New York Times. p. RE5. Retrieved August 29, 2024.
- ^ "Bergdorf Goodman's Betty Halbreich Wanted to Have Her Book Signing in the Produce Department of Costco". Vanity Fair. September 3, 2014. Archived from the original on October 29, 2020. Retrieved September 25, 2019.