LOVE SHOPPING? OBSESSED WITH NEW YORK? FASCINATED BY FAMOUS PEOPLE?
Then you’ll need a copy of I’ll Drink to That: A Life in Style, with a Twist by Betty Halbreich with Rebecca Paley…
Betty Halbreich is the legendary personal shopper at New York’s Bergdorf Goodman department store.
At 86, she’s been there for forty years, telling the rich and famous what to wear, and more recently becoming immortalised in the 2013 documentary, Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf’s (get a copy of the DVD and read the companion book).
Her new book is called I’ll Drink to That: A Life in Style, with a Twist which was written with Rebecca Paley and was released this week.
Here’s the official blurb:
Eighty-six-year-old Betty Halbreich is a true original. A tough broad who could have stepped straight out of Stephen Sondheim’s repertoire, she has spent nearly forty years as the legendary personal shopper at Bergdorf Goodman, where she works with socialites, stars, and ordinary women off the street. She has helped many find their true selves through clothes, frank advice, and her own brand of wisdom. She is trusted by the most discriminating persons—including Hollywood’s top stylists—to tell them what looks best. But Halbreich’s personal transformation from a cosseted young girl to a fearless truth teller is the greatest makeover of her career.
A Chicago native, Halbreich moved to Manhattan at twenty after marrying the dashing Sonny Halbreich, a true character right out of Damon Runyon who liked the nightlife of New York in the fifties. On the surface, they were a great match, but looks can be deceiving; an unfaithful Sonny was emotionally distant while Halbreich became increasingly anguished. After two decades, the fraying marriage finally came undone. Bereft without Sonny and her identity as his wife, she hit rock bottom.
After she began the frightening process of reclaiming herself and started therapy, Halbreich was offered a lifeline in the form of a job at the legendary luxury store Bergdorf Goodman. Soon, she was asked to run the store’s first personal shopping service. It was a perfect fit.
Meticulous, impeccable, hardworking, elegant, and—most of all—delightfully funny, Halbreich has never been afraid to tell it to her clients straight. She won’t sell something just to sell it. If an outfit or shoe or purse is too expensive, she’ll dissuade you from buying it. As Halbreich says, “There are two things nobody wants to face: their closet and their mirror.” She helps women do both, every day.
You might also like these books and movies too:
- BOOK: Secrets of a Fashion Therapist: What You Can Learn Behind the Dressing Room Door by Betty Halbreich with Sally Wadyka
- BOOK: Windows at Bergdorf Goodman Anniversary Edition by David Hoey and Linda Fargo
- BOOK: Bergdorf Blondes by Plum Sykes
- BOOK: The Rise of Fashion and Lessons Learned at Bergdorf Goodman by Ira Neimark
- BOOK: Crossing Fifth Avenue To Bergdorf Goodman: An Insider’s Account on The Rise Of Luxury Retail by Ira Neimark
- BOOK: The World of Department Stores by Jan Whitaker
- BOOK: Service and Style: How the American Department Store Fashioned the Middle Class by Jan Whitaker
- MOVIE: The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
- MOVIE: The September Issue (2009)
- MOVIE: In Vogue: The Editor’s Eye (2012)
Related lusciousness:
Don’t forget to check out the LUSCIOUS SHOP for men’s and women’s fashion, kids, homewares, gifts and themed pages for beach and countryside lusciousness.
And follow Luscious on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, Google+ and Twitter here.
Cheers, Natasha
www.myLusciousLife.com
