Encyclopedia Categories | Jewish Women's Archive

Lane Bryant Malsin

Lane Bryant Malsin revolutionized the clothing industry with her classy maternity wear and clothes for plus–size women. Malsin was a deeply ethical employer, offering pensions, health insurance, and profit–sharing at a time when few other businesses did.

Nicolette Mason

Body-positive blogger Nicolette Mason has become a leader in creating and celebrating fashion for women of all sizes and shapes.

Leandra Medine

Through her fashion blog, Man Repeller, Leandra Medine argued that fashion should be about what women find interesting and exciting to wear, not just attracting a man.

Sally Milgrim

In the early twentieth century, when well-to-do women dressed three or four times a day to carry on their daily social lives, Sally Milgrim designed for any and all of these occasions, always incorporating luxury and detailing into the richness of her designs. Adorning First Ladies and movie stars alike, Milgrim’s designs are remembered to this day.

Hari Nef

Hari Nef, the first trans woman model to be signed to the prestigious IMG modeling agency, has used her public platform to speak out on issues that affect other transgender people.

Carrie Marcus Neiman

A born saleswoman, Carrie Marcus Neiman made her family’s department stores synonymous with high-end retail fashion. Dallas’s legendary Neiman Marcus specialty store owes its style, its personal brand of service, and its first cache of merchandise to Neiman, the fashion authority who helped launch a retailing concept.

Mollie Parnis

Mollie Parnis’s wit and fashion-savvy made her clothing designs a must during her tenure as a fashion legend. Parnis was equally famed for her New York salons that welcomed literary and political giants and for her fashion designs that adorned first ladies.

Lucie Porges

Lucie Porges brought a combination of elegance and a relaxed sensibility to her long and fruitful collaboration with top fashion designer Pauline Trigère. As she continued to design, Porges also imparted her immense knowledge in the Fashion Department of the New School for Social Research.

Sophie Sonia Rosenberg

Sophia Sonia Rosenberg was the creator and owner of Sonia Gowns Inc, an elegant dress company. After immigrating to New York in 1908, she worked for various dress companies and entered a business alliance with Gloria Vanderbilt in 1935.

Nettie Rosenstein

Nettie Rosenstein was a twentieth-century fashion designer and entrepreneur who was instrumental in the popularization of the “little black dress” in America.

Ida Cohen Rosenthal

Ida Cohen Rosenthal not only created the modern bra, she also helped found Maidenform, Inc., and make it the most successful bra manufacturer in the world.

Helena Rubinstein

Helena Rubinstein built a global beauty empire by selling face cream to Depression–era housewives and teaching makeup tricks to film vamp Theda Bara.

Estelle Joan Sommers

Estelle Joan Sommers was a designer, entrepreneur, and executive who made her career in retail dancewear, introducing innovative designs for Capezio’s dance and exercise clothing.

Debbie Stoller

Debbie Stoller has been hailed as a pioneer of “girlie feminism” for reviving interest in traditionally feminine activities like knitting through Bust and Stitch ‘n Bitch.

Tavy Stone

Fashion writer Tavy Stone reached the pinnacle of her career when she was chosen as one of only seven American reporters allowed to cover the wedding of Lady Diana and Prince Charles.

Ivanka Trump

A longtime aide to her father and executive vice president of his company, Ivanka Trump is poised to become the most influential first daughter since Alice Roosevelt Longworth.

Diane Von Furstenberg

Designer Diane von Furstenberg made her mark on the fashion world in 1974 with the invention of the wrap dress.

Chloe Wise

Chloe Wise uses her art to comment on consumer culture, most famously through her Bread Bags series, which creates purses made of realistic-looking bakery items, adorned with the straps, logos, and hardware of designer bags.

Heidi Zak

In creating her company Thirdlove, Heidi Zak completely reimagined women’s bras and the process of shopping for them.

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The Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women

Art: Fashion and Beauty