Quick Facts
Biography
Anne Klein (August 3, 1923 - March 19, 1974) was an American fashion designer. Her birth name was Hannah Golofsky (it has also been written as Golofski). She changed her first name to Anne, and took Ben Klein's last name when she married him in 1948.
She studied at the Traphagen School of Design in New York between 1937 and 1938.
In 1948 she began work as the principal designer of a company her husband Ben Klein created that year, called Junior Sophisticates. In 1967 she patented a girdle designed for the miniskirt. In 1968 she and her second husband Matthew Rubenstein, whom she had married in 1963 after she and Ben Klein divorced, founded Anne Klein & Company. That company began as a sportswear house, but later expanded to include other items, and in 1973 went international. Also in 1973, she took part in The Battle of Versailles Fashion Show.
In 1974 she died of breast cancer.
She was the first fashion designer after Coco Chanel to adapt men's clothing styles into how outfits were produced and designed for women. She also created what was later known as the "Junior Miss" clothing category.
Awards
- Mademoiselle Merit Award, 1954
- Coty American Fashion Critics Award, 1955, 1969, 1971
- Neiman Marcus Award, 1959, 1969 (Klein was the first designer to receive this award twice)
- Lord & Taylor Award, 1964
- National Cotton Council Award, 1965
- Induction into the Coty Fashion Hall of Fame, 1971