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Title details for I'll Drink to That by Betty Halbreich - Available

I'll Drink to That

A Life in Style, with a Twist

by Betty Halbreich
Rebecca Paley
Audiobook
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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
attempted suicide.
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.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

    September 4, 2014

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780553544626
      • File size: 249197 KB
      • Duration: 08:39:09

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      July 21, 2014
      Sartorial style becomes a philosophy of life in this spirited memoir by Halbreich (Secrets of a Fashion Therapist), Bergdorf Goodman’s legendary personal shopper and the subject of the 2013 documentary Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf’s. From her affluent childhood in 1930s Chicago, through her moneyed but turbulent married life in New York, to her divorce and nervous breakdown at middle age, Halbreich recounts her life in clothes. High-end shopping had long been her major consolation when, in 1977, she found her calling: to help women—rich and poor, famous and obscure—find themselves by finding the right outfit at Bergdorf’s. When dressing clients, Halbreich explains, “I try to steer them away from the herd and make them understand the beauty of individuality.” She is a beacon of good taste and good sense, particularly when sharing her tart opinions on the vulgar fashion trends of the past quarter-century. The downside to her philosophizing is a tendency to lapse into cliché. (Perhaps we do not need a personal shopper to pronounce that when she was unhappy she did not know herself, whereas “now I am happy, because I do know myself.”) Still, Halbreich comes across as sage and gracious as she narrates a life full of incident, taking us inside the fashion industry and one of its great institutions. Agent: Carol Mann, Carol Mann Agency.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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