Betty Halbreich

{{Infobox person

| name = Betty Halbreich

| birth_name = Betty Ann Samuels

| birth_date = {{birth date|1927|11|17}}

| birth_place = Chicago, Illinois, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|2024|8|24|1927|11|17}}

| death_place = New York City, New York, U.S.

| occupation = {{cslist|Personal shopper|stylist|writer}}

| spouse = {{marriage|Sonny Halbreich|1947|2004|reason=died}}

| children = 2; including Kathy

}}

Betty Ann Halbreich ({{IPA|de|ˈhalbraɪç}};{{cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/video/watch/still-asking-betty-halbreich|title=Still Asking Betty Halbreich|magazine=The New Yorker|date=October 17, 2013}} 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.

Early life

Halbreich was born Betty Ann Samuels in Chicago on November 17, 1927, to Morton Samuels and Carol Freshman, who divorced shortly after her birth.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/28/fashion/betty-halbreich-dead.html |title=Betty Halbreich, 96, 'Most Famous Personal Shopper in the World,' Dies |last=Traub |first=Alex |date=August 29, 2024 |newspaper=The New York Times |page=A1 |accessdate=August 29, 2024 |url-access=limited}} Her mother married Harry Stoll, a businessman, and she grew up in an affluent Jewish neighborhood in the South Side of Chicago.{{Cite web |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/2014/10/08/betty-halbreich-a-life-in-style-with-a-few-twists/ |title=Betty Halbreich: A life in style, with a few twists |first=Wendy |last=Donahue |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |date=March 29, 2019}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.harpercollins.com/author/|title=Betty Halbreich|website=HarperCollins Publishers|access-date=September 25, 2019|archive-date=April 17, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200417175707/https://www.harpercollins.com/author/|url-status=dead}} Her stepfather ran department stores and her mother owned a bookstore.{{Cite web|url=https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/betty-halbreich|title=Betty Halbreich – Bergdorf Goodman Personal Shopping|first=Annie |last=Tomlin|website=refinery29.com|date=March 8, 2013}}

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.{{Cite web |url=https://www.wnyc.org/people/betty-halbreich/ |title=People – Betty Halbreich |website=WNYC |access-date=August 29, 2024}} Originally she wanted to be a painter or cartoonist, and she enrolled at the Art Institute of Chicago. She also studied at Colorado College. 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. They married in 1947 and moved to New York, where she lived the life of a Manhattan socialite.

Career

Halbreich's marriage was unhappy, due to her husband's drinking and frequent affairs.{{cite web|url=https://www.thejc.com/culture/books/review-i-ll-drink-to-that-1.61673|title=Review: I'll Drink To That|website=www.thejc.com|access-date=September 25, 2019|archive-date=September 25, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190925024532/https://www.thejc.com/culture/books/review-i-ll-drink-to-that-1.61673|url-status=live}} She attempted suicide and was admitted to a mental institution.{{Cite web|url=https://40plusstyle.com/a-life-in-fashion-with-betty-halbreich-a-book-review-of-ill-drink-to-that/|title=Book review of I'll Drink to That by Betty Halbreich|date=October 17, 2014|website=40+ Style|access-date=September 25, 2019|archive-date=September 25, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190925024530/https://40plusstyle.com/a-life-in-fashion-with-betty-halbreich-a-book-review-of-ill-drink-to-that/|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.jeannebeker.com/all/interviews/betty-halbreich/|title=Betty Halbreich|date=February 10, 2015|access-date=September 25, 2019|archive-date=September 25, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190925024533/http://www.jeannebeker.com/all/interviews/betty-halbreich/|url-status=live}} 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.{{Cite web|url=https://intothegloss.com/2016/07/betty-halbreich-style/|title=Bergdorf's Legend Betty Halbreich On Beauty And Aging|date=July 18, 2016|website=Into The Gloss}} On her suggestion, the store created a personal shopping office for Halbreich. Her first client was the socialite Babe Paley. 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. 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.{{Cite magazine |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/11/12/ask-betty |title=Ask Betty |first=Judith |last=Thurman |magazine=The New Yorker |date=November 12, 2012}}

In 1997 she wrote the memoir Secrets of a Fashion Therapist. 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.{{Cite web |title=Instagram |url=https://www.instagram.com/p/C-SrbQ5sUgg/?hl=en |access-date=August 8, 2024 |website=www.instagram.com}}{{Cite book |url=https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/betty-halbreich/no-one-has-seen-it-all/9780762488568/ |title=No One Has Seen It All |date=August 5, 2024 |publisher=Running Press Book Publishers |isbn=978-0-7624-8856-8 |language=en-US |access-date=August 8, 2024 |archive-date=August 8, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240808153547/https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/betty-halbreich/no-one-has-seen-it-all/9780762488568/ |url-status=live}}

In 2013 she was featured in the documentary Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf's, which raised her public profile.{{cite web|url=https://ew.com/article/2013/04/18/scatter-my-ashes-at-bergdorfs/|title='Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf's' documentary|work=EW.com|access-date=May 11, 2020|archive-date=August 27, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240827082127/https://ew.com/article/2013/04/18/scatter-my-ashes-at-bergdorfs/|url-status=live}} She remained a salaried employee of Bergdorf Goodman until her death.

Personal life

Halbreich and her husband had two children, Kathy Halbreich and John Halbreich. Though Betty and Sonny Halbreich separated after two decades of marriage, they never divorced, and were legally married until his death in 2004.{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/01/classified/paid-notice-deaths-halbreich-irwin-sonny.html|title=Paid Notice: Deaths Halbreich, Irwin (Sonny)|newspaper=The New York Times|accessdate=August 24, 2024|date=June 1, 2004}} Beginning in her sixties, she was in a long term relationship with Jim Dipple.

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.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/18/realestate/betty-halbreichs-home-away-from-bergdorfs.html |title=Her Home Away From Bergdorf's |last=Shaw |first=Dan |date=August 18, 2013 |newspaper=The New York Times |page=RE5 |accessdate=August 29, 2024 |url-access=limited}}{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2014/09/betty-halbreich-bergdorf-goodman-I-ll-drink-to-that-interview|title=Bergdorf Goodman's Betty Halbreich Wanted to Have Her Book Signing in the Produce Department of Costco|magazine=Vanity Fair|date=September 3, 2014 |access-date=September 25, 2019|archive-date=October 29, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201029115205/https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2014/09/betty-halbreich-bergdorf-goodman-I-ll-drink-to-that-interview|url-status=live}} She died from cancer at a hospital in Manhattan on August 24, 2024, at the age of 96.{{cite web|url=https://wwd.com/business-news/retail/betty-halbreich-obituary-bergdorfs-legendary-personal-shopper-dies-at-1236555046/|title=Betty Halbreich, Bergdorf's Legendary Personal Shopper, Dead at 96|publisher=WWD|date=August 24, 2024|accessdate=August 24, 2024}}