Anne Klein (born Hannah Golofsky; August 3, 1923 – March 19, 1974) was an American fashion designer, businesswoman, as well as a founder and the namesake of Anne Klein & Company[1] (owned by WHP Global as of July 2019).[3]
She co-founded Anne Klein & Company in 1968 with Gunther Oppenheim, and within ten years her designs were being sold in over 750 department stores and boutiques in the USA.[3]
Her design career began in 1937 when she was awarded a scholarship to attend the Traphagen School of Fashion,[4] which led to her first job as a sketcher for dress firms on Seventh Avenue.
In 1948 she married clothing manufacturer Ben Klein, with whom she launched the Junior Sophisticates clothing line.[2] Junior Sophisticates offered styles to younger women with smaller figures. Anne Klein was the principal designer at Junior Sophisticates until 1960, when her marriage ended. In 1963, she married her second husband, Matthew "Chip" Rubinstein, and in 1968, they founded Anne Klein & Company on 39th Street. She also opened Anne Klein Studio on 57th Street.
[5] A large aspect of her brand is being centered around understanding of the average working women’s clothing needs, as well as empowering women in general.[6][7]
Beginning in 1954 with the Mademoiselle Merit Award, Anne Klein won numerous fashion awards and gained international recognition.
In 1973, she was the only woman invited to participate in the Battle of Versailles, a competitive fashion show consisting of five American designers against five French designers, intended to raise money for renovations at Versailles [8][9]
On March 19, 1974, Anne Klein died of breast cancer at Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, NY.[10]
Early life and education
Anne Klein was born August 3, 1923, in Brooklyn, New York, as Hannah Golofski.[1] Her father, Morris Golofski, owned a fleet of taxicabs; her mother was Esther Golofski.[11] She also had two sisters, Mae Waldman and Rita Kiniat.[12] She was known to say that she changed her name from Hannah to Anne because it was more aesthetically pleasing.
It was while studying fine arts and drawing at Girls' Commercial High School (now known as Prospect Heights High School) that she discovered her talent for design. The start of Anne Klein’s career was when she was only 15 years old working as a freelance sketcher at a wholesale house. Within a year's time, she was employed at her first official job in the garment industry with Varden Petites. There, she worked to redesign the firm's collection and introduced a new style of ready-to-wear clothing for young, smaller figured women that would come to be known as "Junior Miss".[2]
In 1937 she was awarded a scholarship to attend the Traphagen School of Fashion which led to her first job as a sketcher for dress firms on 7th Avenue. She started her fashion career while at the Traphagen School of Fashion in New York City, studying between 1937 and 1938.[13][4]
Fashion career 1940s and 1950s
Anne Klein’s schooling and efforts during her teenage years set her up on a promising path career-wise. In 1940, Anne Klein began making a name for herself as a designer. She first began designing for Maurice Rentner at his business, Maurice Rentner, Inc., which produced ready-to-wear designs for men and women.[14]
In 1948 she married clothing manufacturer Ben Klein and they launched the Junior Sophisticates label. Junior Sophisticates offered elegant styles to younger women with smaller figures. Anne Klein was the principal designer at Junior Sophisticates until 1960, when her marriage ended.[2] It was during this time of ready-to-wear fashion, "modern" designs for women, and an increase in the number of women in the workplace that Klein was one of the first to introduce, and to become known for, "separates": individual pieces which work together as a whole, as opposed to dresses.
The line was made for juniors and petite women, as Klein was petite herself. At this time, petite clothing lines were practically nonexistent, so smaller women often had to settle for child-like clothes. Junior sophisticates began with themes of buttons and bows, as well as frilliness to appeal to their mainly junior demographic, but then slowly transitioned into more sleek and mature designs. The more mature designs from this the Junior Sophisticates line could be considered a preview to what the designs in her future company, Anne Klein and Company, would closely resemble.[16]
Part of the inspiration behind Anne Klein’s brand was putting a feminine twist on menswear, like jackets and suits. Coco Chanel was the first company to do this, with Anne Klein then being the second.[17]
About this time she began winning awards in the fashion industry including:
1954 she was awarded the Mademoiselle Merit Award.[18]
1954 she was awarded the Coty American Fashion Critics Award.[18]
1959 she was awarded the Neiman-Marcus Fashion Award for the first time, leading to international recognition as a fashion designer.[18][2]
Fashion career 1960s and 1970s
In 1960, her marriage to Ben Klein ended, as did her association with Junior Sophisticates.[2]
During the early 1960s, after her divorce from Ben Klein, she kept the name Klein and worked as a freelance designer, reinvigorating well-known but faltering lines such as Pierre Cardin coats and Evan-Picone.[5]
This freelance work helped to fund her 1963 opening of Anne Klein Studio on 57th Street. Also in 1963 she married a second time to Matthew "Chip" Rubenstein.[19] Matthew Rubenstein was in the paper bag business when he met Klein.[20]
In 1965, she, her husband, and three designers named Don Simonelli, Gerald Feder, and Hazel Haire came together to make the Anne Klein Design Studio.[20]
In 1961, she was one of a select group to win the American Creativity Award.[21]
In 1964, she was awarded the Lord & Taylor Rose Award for independent thinking, an award first given to Albert Einstein.[18]
In 1968, she established the Anne Klein & Company label as director and co-owner with her husband, on 39th Street. The label was opened in collaboration with investor Gunther Oppenheim, a fashion industry stalwart.[13] Over the next ten years, the business expanded to having 750 department stores and boutiques in America selling her designs.[3]
In 1969, she was awarded the Neiman-Marcus Fashion Award; she was, later, the first designer to win the award for a second time.[18][2]
In 1970, Klein opened the first designer shop-in-shop boutique, "Anne Klein Corner" in Saks Fifth Avenue, New York. That year, she was awarded the Coty American Fashion Critics Award, which she would win again. A year later, in 1971, she was named to the Coty Fashion Hall of Fame.[2] The 8th designer to be so inducted in 28 years.
In 1973, she was included as one of five designers invited to show at the Battle of Versailles design competition to raise money for renovations at Versailles.[8][13][9] Also in 1973, she asked Tomio Taki to become a partner of her company, giving him a 25% percent share of it. Unfortunately, she passed only a year after making this deal with Taki.[17]
Death
Anne Klein was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer in the late 1960’s. On March 19, 1974, Anne Klein died at the age of 50 of breast cancer at Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, NY .[13] She was survived by her husband Matthew “Chip” Rubenstein, as well as her two sisters, Mae Waldman and Rita Kiniat.[12]
The company
After Anne Klein died in 1974, the company dealt with periods of financial troubles.[6][22]Donna Karan and Louis Dell’Olio took over the design direction of the company.[23] The main consensus after these uncertain times was that the company needed to focus on going back to Anne Klein’s original values and design choices, as that is where the brand experienced the most success.[22]
Anne Klein is an American privately held company owned by WHP Global who acquired the brand in July 2019.[3] They purchased the company from Premier Brands Group. The group claimed to have sold the company to focus more on other companies they own. Some goals that WHP Global have expressed for the company included growing the company through U.S. retailers including Macy’s and expanding globally. They also wanted to focus on investing in marketing, social media, and digital commerce in hopes of gaining more brand engagement.[22]
Today the brand sells a full lifestyle assortment from apparel, footwear, watches, and jewelry and is sold in 60 countries worldwide.
American Ingenuity: Sportswear 1930s-1970s, an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Anne Klein (see index)
