Betty Halbreich, who brought an unparalleled personal shopping experience to generations of clients at Bergdorf Goodman, died Saturday in Manhattan from natural causes. She was 96.
With her discerning eye, impeccable taste, along with her wit and plain-spoken no-nonsense manner, she charmed the many celebrity and typically affluent shoppers she met with regularly, and her colleagues as well, and was considered an institution at Bergdorf Goodman. A native of Chicago, Halbreich was also a best-selling author.
“Our mom led a compelling life, much of which was spent at her favorite place in the world, at her Bergdorf Goodman desk – her room with a view, tossing zingers while offering those BG tea sandwiches to whomever graced her office,” her children Kathy Halbreich and John Halbreich said in a joint statement Saturday. “From the young lawyer taking a case to court for the first time to decking someone out for an incredible gala evening, she was immensely proud to dress women and help them chase their dreams. Despite all of the glitz and glamour, she held no pretensions – she was both a realist and a romantic. You didn’t have to be famous or a billionaire to enter Betty’s orbit of care and advice. We will all miss her wisdom, sometimes caustic humor, and passion.”
“Betty was truly one of a kind. You never knew who you might see when you stopped by Betty’s office,” said Mallory Andrews, Bergdorf’s former senior vice president for marketing, sales promotion and public relations. “I remember one December seeing Walter Cronkite who was there to select his wife’s Christmas gift as he did every year. And then there were Joan Rivers, Betty Buckley, Lena Dunham and the list goes on. Bergdorf’s will not be the same without her.”
“In countless ways Betty Halbreich shaped the history of Bergdorf Goodman, her home away from home for 48 years,” said Darcy Penick, president of Bergdorf Goodman….