CARNEGIE, HATTIE

CARNEGIE, HATTIE (1886–1956), U.S. milliner, fashion designer, manufacturer. The second of seven children, Henrietta Kanengeiser was born in Vienna and immigrated with her family to Manhattan's Lower East Side at the turn of the 20th century. Although she started out as a messenger girl at Macy's, owning only one skirt and a couple of blouses, her sense of style and business savvy led her to set standards for fashion for over a generation and she left an estate of $8 million upon her death at the age of 69. She started in the fashion business in 1909 when she and a seamstress, Miss Roth, opened a shop on East Tenth Street. Roth made dresses and Henrietta, who made the hats, changed her name to Hattie Carnegie, taking the last name of the steel magnate, Andrew Carnegie. In 1919, following a business dispute, Carnegie bought out her partner and Roth & Carnegie, Inc. became Hattie Carnegie, Inc. Between 1919 and 1939, Carnegie made more than seven buying trips to Paris each year, bringing back samples to restyle as custom dresses for sale at her exclusive shop. Carnegie, who is credited with training many U.S. dress designers, including John Louis, Bruno, and Norman Norell, located her offices in a building on Fifth Avenue that also housed her wholesale business, where she created and sold models of her designer dresses to manufacturers for reproduction and sale in major department stores. In addition to selling dresses, she had a millinery shop and jewelry, perfume, and cosmetics factories. After two unsuccessful marriages, Carnegie embarked in 1928 on a long-lasting union with John Zanft, vice president of the William Fox Circuit of Theaters and a childhood friend. Carnegie's fashions were often cited for excellence of design as when New York City Mayor O'Dwyer presented her with a trophy at the sixth annual American Fashion Critics Ceremony at Gracie Mansion in 1948. The award was given for "her distinguished contribution to the long range development of good taste in dress in America" (New York Times). She died after a long illness. (Sara Alpern (2nd ed.)