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Anne Klein (August 3, 1923 – March 19, 1974) was a fashion designer and businesswoman, the founder and namesake of Anne Klein & Company. 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. (news release https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190717005129/en/WHP-Global-Launches-New-Brand-Management-Platform )

Her design career began in 1937 when 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.

In 1948 she married clothing manufacturer Ben Klein, with whom she launched the Junior Sophisticates clothing line. 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" Rubenstein, and in 1968, they founded Anne Klein & Company at 39th Street. She also opened Anne Klein Studio at 57th Street.

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 a fashion show consisting of five American and five French designers, intended to raise money for renovations at Versailles.

Early Life
Anne Klein was born August 3, 1923 in Brooklyn, New York, as Hannah Golofski. Her father, Morris Golofski, owned a fleet of taxicabs; her mother was Esther Golofski [3](https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/.premium-this-day-anne-klein-is-born-1.5382143). She was known to say that she changed her name from Hannah to Anne because it was more aesthetically pleasing.

It was while studying art at Girls' Commercial High School that she discovered her talent for design. Within a year’s time, she was employed at her first 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".

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.

1940s and 1950s
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.

In 1944, Anne Klein joined Bonnie Cashin and Claire McCardell to form a female design trio who laid the foundations of American sportswear.[4]. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_fashion_design)

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.

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.

About this time she began winning awards in the fashion industry including:

1954 she was awarded the Mademoiselle Merit Award (citation needed)

1954 she was awarded the Coty American Fashion Critics Award[5] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coty_Award)

1959 she was awarded the Neiman-Marcus Fashion Award for the first time, leading to international recognition as a fashion designer (citation needed)

1960s and 1970s
In 1960 her marriage to Ben Klein ended, as did her association with Junior Sophisticates.

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[6]. (https://www.google.com/books/edition/Historical_Dictionary_of_the_Fashion_Ind/jycnDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=anne+klein+freelance+design&pg=PA264&printsec=frontcover)

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.

In 1961 she was one of a select group to win the American Creativity Award (citation needed)

In 1964 she was awarded the Lord & Taylor Rose Award for independent thinking, an award first given to Albert Einstein.

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.[7] The next ten years saw an expansion of the business, with over 750 department stores and boutiques in America selling her designs.

The company's first collection was shown on April 23, 1968, with Women's Wear Daily making note of it by saying "First total collection to be fully coordinated. It is a planned wardrobe of easy uncontrived clothes to wear from head to toe and day to night." WWD April 16, 1968 (citation needed)

1969 she was awarded the Neiman-Marcus Fashion Award; she was, later, the first designer to win the award for a second time.

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 Hall of Fame. The 8th designer to be so inducted in 28 years. (citation needed)

1973 she was included as one of five designers invited to show at the legendary Battle of Versailles design competition. The competition served to to raise money for renovations at Versailles.

Death
March 19, 1974 Anne Klein died at the age of 51 of breast cancer at Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, NY ( https://www.nytimes.com/1974/03/22/archives/fashions-family-gathers-to-mourn-and-honoranne-klein.html )

Edited to add a few notes to hold this while I look for and add proper citations. CharlieRocks (talk) 19:15, 26 January 2020 (UTC)