BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.4.0.1//EN TZID:America/New_York X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/New_York BEGIN:VEVENT UID:6408@tepb.org DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20231214T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20231214T130000 DTSTAMP:20231211T175258Z URL:https://www.tepb.org/events/womens-league-membership-luncheon-2/ SUMMARY:Women's League Membership Luncheon DESCRIPTION:Membership Luncheon Featuring fashions by C. Orrico of Palm Bea ch\n\nPnina Tornai born November 25\, 1962\, is an Israeli fashion and wed ding dress designer\, reality\, and daytime TV personality. Tornai and her wedding gowns have appeared on TLC's reality television show Say Yes to t he Dress.\n\nPnina Tornai was born in Ramat HaSharon\, Israel\, to Mizrahi Jewish parents\; she is the eldest of four girls.  Her father was an Isr aeli diplomat from Alexandria\, Egypt\, and her mother was from Morocco.  After graduation\, she enlisted in Israel's mandatory military service an d once completed Tornai decided to pursue her acting career by enrolling i n acting school in Paris\, France. There she married and had her son\, Dav id.\n\nAfter ten years in Paris\, she returned to Israel with her son and opened a small store in Tel Aviv\, with only one seamstress. The two began creating day and evening gowns. Tornai began making wedding dresses in 19 92\, when a woman asked if she could make her a wedding dress that mirrore d an evening gown that she had seen in the shop window. Tornai accepted th e challenge\, and when the woman got married\, the photo of their wedding made the front page of an Israeli newspaper. When other brides-to-be saw t he picture\, they came to Tornai asking if she could replicate the dress\, which then launched her career. Tornai turned her store into a wedding dr ess salon.\n\nIn 2005\, Tornai first showed her dresses to Kleinfeld Brida l\, but her designs were initially rejected by the famous bridal salon for being too sexy. Tornai did not give up\, slightly altered her designs\, a nd returned. This time her gowns were accepted. Soon one of her dresses be came popular with the clientele and she became one of Kleinfeld's most suc cessful designers. A Pnina Tornai bridal boutique was opened in-store for her dresses\, the only designer to have a boutique. In two years she becam e the store's top vendor. Women from all over the world travel to meet wit h Tornai at her boutique inside Kleinfeld’s. Tornai takes personal inter est in every one of her brides and feels truly honored to be dressing them on the most important day of their lives. On several episodes Pnina has g enerously donated one of her highly prized creations to make a bride’s d ream come true.\n\nTornai now spends two weeks out of every month in New Y ork City\, where she meets with brides and holds monthly trunk shows. She still approves every dress that is sold. She spends the rest of her time t raveling and visiting her other stores around the world\, including the St ates\, Canada\, Bahamas\, Israel\, Italy\, Greece\, Germany\, Croatia\, An gola\, South Korea\, and China.\n\nThe Pnina Tornai product line has expan ded to include footwear\, accessories\, headpieces\, jewelry\, and fragran ce\, all befitting the brand's couture aesthetic. Pnina includes her famil y in her business\; her husband is the business manager\; her sister is he r makeup artist\; and her son is her graphic designer.\n\nBorn Nettie Rose nscrans in Salzburg\, Austria in 1890\, she and her family immigrated to A merica in the 1890s and settled in Harlem. In 1913 Nettie married Saul Ros enstein\, who ran a women's underwear business\, and began dressmaking as a home business. After being approached by the I. Magnin department store in 1919\, she began wholesaling. By In the 1920s American fashion business \, imported fashions by named French couturiers were considered the best. At this time Rosenstein's designs were sold by stores under their own labe ls\, though purchasers were told that the dresses were in fact by Nettie R osenstein. Through word-of-mouth Rosenstein earned name recognition and he r own-name label became a valuable commodity. Her clothes were retailed ar ound America\, but only one store in each city was permitted to carry fash ions bearing Rosenstein's label. In 1927 Rosenstein tried an early retirem ent\, but resumed designing in 1931\, when she reopened  in collaboration with her sister-in-law Eva.\n\nIn 1937\, Rosenstein was described by Life Magazine as one of the most highly regarded American designers. She was o ne of the first recipients of the Neiman Marcus Fashion Award for its laun ch in 1938. In 1940\, Rosenstein clothing was sold out of 92 shops and dep artment stores across the USA\, at prices ranging from $98 to $500. These prices were beyond the range of most consumers\, Rosenstein's designs were so widely copied that she still influenced the average American woman's w ardrobe. One such design was the "little black dress" designed to go from day to evening with low-cut evening necklines combined with daywear silhou ettes and materials. Nettie Rosenstein designs also included printed dress es with gloves to match\, and she was also known for her accessories and s triking costume jewelry. Many of the more striking Nettie Rosenstein garme nts were designed by Eva Rosencrans as Rosenstein preferred to focus her a ttention on running the business\, and her sister-in-law was happy to let Nettie take credit for her work 1921\, she owned an establishment with 50 workers in New York.\n\nNettie Rosenstein announced her second retirement in March 1942\, inspiring a tribute in TIME Magazine. However\, this retir ement did not last long\, as she resumed fashion design a few years later\ , winning a Coty Award in 1947. Nettie Rosenstein was responsible for Firs t Lady Mamie Eisenhower's dress commissioned by Neiman Marcus for the 1953 presidential inauguration Ball\, although the dress itself (and the subse quent 1957 ballgown for the second presidential inauguration) were designe d by Eva Rosencrans\, a good friend of Mamie's since 1950.\n\nNettie Rosen stein discontinued the fashion side of her business in 1961. Eva Rosencran s went on to design clothing for Ben Reig\, while their long term business partner and Coty Award winner\, Sol L. Klein\, continued to design and ma nufacture costume jewelry and accessories under the name Nettie Rosenstein Accessories until 1975. He retired in 1975\, the same time as the Nettie Rosenstein brand closed. On March 13\, 1980\, after a long illness\, Netti e Rosenstein died at the age of 90.\n\nLena Himmelstein Bryant Malsin was an American clothing designer and retailer who founded the plus-size cloth ing chain Lane Bryant. Despite difficult circumstances\, she saw a need an d came up with a solution that revolutionized the women's fashion industry .\n\nLena Himmelstein was born in 1879 to a Lithuanian Jewish family. She became an orphan shortly after birth when her parents were murdered in a p ogrom and was raised by her grandparents. In 1895\, she joined her sister Anna\, in New York where she found work in a sweatshop at $1 a week. In 18 99\, she married David Bryant\, a Russian Jews refugee. She moved to Harle m with her husband\, who was a jeweler. He died not long after their son R aphael was born. She then lived on West 112th St. in Manhattan\, supportin g herself by making and selling negligees and tea gowns from delicate lace s and fine silks.\n\nIn 1904\, Bryant moved to Fifth Avenue and rented a s hopfront on the first floor of a building for $12.50 a month\, with living quarters in the rear. She hung garments from the gas fixtures and set up shop. Her sister's new husband lent her $300 to open a bank account as wor king capital for the purchase of fabrics. A bank officer misspelled her na me on the application as "Lane"\, so that became the name of the store.\n\ nBryant earned a reputation for the clothing she made for pregnant women. Bryant created a comfortable and concealing tea gown by attaching an accor dion pleated skirt to a bodice using an elastic band. She had created the first known commercially sold maternity dress.\n\nIn 1909\, at age 32\, sh e married Albert Malsin who was a fellow Lithuanian Jewish refugee. A mech anical engineer\, he took charge of the business. He systematically began to develop and expand it and instituted engineering exactness\, and modern cost accounting and pricing. Sales had reached $50\,000 a year by 1910 (e quivalent to $1\,570\,357 in 2022). Albert was determined to steer the ope ration towards specialization. To produce in quantity and at lower cost he began to have dozens of dresses mechanically cut at once and employed hig h-speed sewing methods. Lane Bryant began supplying design pattern materia ls and financing for contractors.\n\nOnce she was able to advertise in new spapers in 1911\, sales increased substantially. Soon she expanded to a ne w shop at 19 W. 38th Street where she employed a dozen employees. Introduc ing a mail-order catalogue increased sales further so that the company's r evenue was over one million dollars in 1917. Her second innovation was mas s producing ready-made clothing for women in larger sizes and this was the basis of further growth\, with sales greater than for maternity wear by 1 923.\n\nTo bypass exclusion from the newspapers\, the Malsins created the first mail order catalog for maternity wear. The mail order business was d eveloped for the women preferring privacy about their "condition". By 1917 \, revenues from the catalog alone exceeded one million dollars (equivalen t to $23 million in 2022). By 1919\, their "stout catalog" had 52 pages an d the "maternity catalog" had 76 pages.\n\nThree more children\, Theodore\ , Helen\, and Arthur were born to the couple. Her son Raphael served as th e company chairman and chief executive of Lane Bryant from 1940-1972\, fol lowed in that role by his half-brother Arthur.\n\nLena Bryant was a pionee r in other ways. Her customers were important to her\, and customer relati ons and corporate philanthropy were high on her list. At her suggestion\, Lane Bryant\, Inc. worked with the Red Cross to replace any Lane Bryant cu stomer's wardrobe destroyed in a disaster. After the 1947 Texas City Disas ter in Texas City\, Texas\, the company outfitted 58 mail order customers whose homes were destroyed in the resulting fire.\n\nAnother concern was e mployee benefits. At a time when few companies offered anything more than wages\, Lane Bryant offered profit sharing\, pension\, disability insuranc e\, group life insurance plans\, and medical benefits. By 1950\, more than 3\,500 employees participated in these pioneering concepts. Twenty-five p ercent of the stock issued when the company went public was reserved for e mployee subscription.\n\nLena Bryant Malsin took an active role in Jewish communal charities. She supported the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society\, the N ew York Federation of Jewish Philanthropies\, and several other causes. Sh e died at her home in Manhattan on September 26\, 1951\, at the age of 74\ , leaving the business to her sons. Lane Bryant has been acquired by sever al parent companies over the years but Lena’s name remains as the leader in size-plus ready to wear.\n\nLea Gottlieb was born to a Jewish family i n Hungary in 1918 and raised in poverty by an aunt. Before World War II be gan\, she was planning to study chemistry\, but could not continue higher studies in Budapest because of the quota on Jews. After her marriage to Ar min Gottlieb\, she worked as a bookkeeper at the raincoat factory owned by her husband’s family. During Germany’s occupation of Hungary in the m id-1940s\, her husband Armin was shipped to a labor camp\; Lea and her two daughters survived from the Nazis in Budapest\, moving from one hiding pl ace to another.\n\nIn 1949\, the family emigrated to Israel\, where they s tarted selling rainwear before moving onto swimwear\, which better matched the country’s climate. They founded Gottex (a combination of their last name and the word “textiles”) in 1956 and built it into one of the wo rld’s most successful swimwear companies ultimately sold in more than 10 0 countries.\n\nAs chief designer\, Gottlieb was actively involved in ever y facet of design\, from choosing the fabrics to overseeing the samples. H er collection\, in bold eye-catching colors\, florals and prints\, expande d from swimwear to pareos\, caftans\, tunics\, skirts\, pants and jackets in fabrics that matched the swimwear. The line staged elaborate fashion sh ows and became an important resource at stores such as Neiman’s\, Saks a nd Bloomingdale’s.\n\nFor much of its history\, Gottex remained a family business. Lea Gottlieb was at the helm\, her late husband oversaw the com pany’s administration and finances\; her daughter Miriam ran the Gottex operations and showroom in the U.S.\, and her late daughter Judith assiste d her mother with design.\n\nGottlieb was honored both in Israel and aroun d the world for her accomplishments. In 2005\, she was voted one of the 20 0 greatest Israelis of all time and was included in the book “Great Jewi sh Women” for her contribution in helping Israel develop its fashion ind ustry.\n\nIn 1997\, Gottex\, which was generating $60 million in sales\, w as sold to Africa-Israel Group\, a real estate conglomerate in Tel Aviv. A fter a year heading the design team\, Gottlieb left the company\, and once her non-compete expired\, at the age of 85\, she founded a new swimwear l ine under her own name for Tefron.\n\nMrs. G.\, as she was known\, passed away peacefully at 94 on November 17\,2012 at her home in Tel Aviv. She wa s survived by daughter Miriam\, six grandchildren and 11 great grandchildr en.\n\nIda Cohen Rosenthal\, co-founder of Maidenform\, the first company to make modern bras\, was born on January 9\, 1886\, in Tsarist Russia. Sh ortly after immigrating to New Jersey in 1904\, she married William Rosent hal\, purchased a Singer sewing machine on the installment plan and began working as an independent seamstress.\n\nIda's sewing business boomed duri ng World War I\, and soon she and her husband\, along with business partne r Enid Bisset\, opened a custom dress shop called Enid’s Frocks. The pop ular "flapper" style of the day demanded a flat-chested look\, which women achieved by wearing uncomfortable bandeaux. But the Rosenthals’ dislike d the way their dresses fit women with artificially flat chests\, and so t hey developed a new undergarment that would support and accentuate woman's natural figure: two cups connected by shoulder straps and a band that fas tened in the back. At first\, they simply gave the new bras away with each dress they sold. As the popularity of their new undergarment grew\, they gave up dressmaking and focused exclusively on producing and selling bras. To distinguish their product from the "boyish form" bandeaux\, they calle d their new garment "Maidenform." The new company\, established in 1922 wa s called the Enid Manufacturing Company until\, in 1930\, it became the Ma idenform Brassiere Company to be more identified with its principal produc t. The firm survived both the Great Depression and Bisset's retirement and \, by the end of the 1930s\, department stores across the country and arou nd the world were selling Maidenform bras.\n\nWilliam\, an amateur sculptu rer focused on design\, inventing standardized cup sizes\, maternity and n ursing bras\, and adjustable straps—Ida ran the business\, negotiating w ith unions and introducing assembly-line production. A marketing genius\, she began an aggressive print and radio ad campaign\, making Maidenform th e first intimate apparel company to advertise. In 1949\, Ida came up with the now-famous "I dreamed I... in my Maidenform bra" campaign\, depicting brassiered women in a range of unexpected settings (like driving a chariot )\, which ran successfully for 20 years.\n\nAfter William's death in 1958\ , Ida became the company's president and then chairman of the board. She c ontinued working until she suffered a stroke in 1966\, after which she sta yed on as honorary chairman of the board until her death in 1973. Her daug hter\, Beatrice\, inherited the multimillion-dollar family company and upo n her death her daughter Elizabeth Coleman. Although Maidenform held much of the market share\, other competitors flourished. The company expanded t heir product line\, bought other brands and in 1997 burdened with debt\, f iled for chapter 11 and the last of the Rosenthal heirs resigned. The Maid enform brand survived with venture capital infusion and turn around expert ise.\n\nMaidenform Charitable Foundation is committed to funding a series of programs focusing on initiatives that support and empower women\, breas t\, and colon cancer research.\n\nSara Blakely\n\nSara Blakely born Februa ry 27\, 1971 in Clearwater\, Florida and graduated from FSU founded Spanx in Atlanta in 1998 at age 27.  Sara was named in Time magazine's "Time 10 0" annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2014\, she was listed as the 93rd most powerful woman in the world by Forbes.\n\n Although she planned to become an attorney\, she reconsidered after scorin g very low on the LSAT\; she instead accepted a job at Disney in Orlando w here she worked for three months. She also occasionally worked as a stand- up comedian during this period.\n\nAfter her short stint at Disney\, she s old fax machines door-to-door. She was quite successful in sales and was p romoted to national sales trainer at the age of 25. Forced to wear pantyho se in the hot Floridian climate for her sales role\, she disliked the appe arance of the seamed foot while wearing open-toed shoes but liked the way that the control-top eliminated panty lines and made her body appear firme r. For a party\, she experimented by cutting off the feet of her pantyhose while wearing them under a new pair of slacks and found that the pantyhos e continuously rolled up her legs\, but she also achieved the desired resu lt.\n\nAt age 27\, Blakely relocated to Atlanta\, Georgia\, and while stil l working at Danka\, the office supply company\, spent the next two year r esearching and developing her hosiery idea.\n\nSara drove to North Carolin a\, the location of most of America's hosiery mills\, to present her idea. She was turned away by every representative\; these companies were used t o dealing with established companies and did not see the value of her idea . Two weeks later Blakely received a call from a mill operator based in As heboro\, who offered to support Blakely's concept\, as he had received str ong encouragement from his three daughters who tried the samples.   Blak ely further explained that the experience of developing her idea revealed to her that the hosiery manufacturing industry was overseen solely by men who do not use the products.\n\nThe creation of the initial product protot ype was completed over the course of a year.\n\nShe arranged a meeting wit h a representative of the Neiman Marcus\, at which she changed into the pr oduct in the ladies’ restroom in the presence of the Neiman Marcus buyer to prove the benefits of her innovation. Blakely's product was sold in se ven Neiman Marcus stores because of the meeting\; Bloomingdales\, Saks\, a nd Bergdorf Goodman soon followed. At around this time\, Blakely sent a ba sket of products to Oprah Winfrey's television program\, with a gift card that explained what she was attempting to develop.\n\nIn November 2000\, O prah Winfrey named Spanx one of her "Favorite Things\," which led to a sig nificant rise in popularity and sales\, as well as Blakely's resignation f rom her day job. Spanx achieved $4 million in sales in its first year and $10 million in its second year. In 2001\, Blakely signed a contract with Q VC\, the home shopping channel.\n\nIn 2012\, Blakely landed on the cover o f Forbes magazine for being the youngest self-made female billionaire in t he world.\n\nIn 2006\, Blakely launched the Sara Blakely Foundation to hel p women through education and entrepreneurial training. Blakely became the first female billionaire to join the "Giving Pledge\," Bill Gates and War ren Buffett's pledge\, whereby the world's richest people donate at least half of their wealth to charity.\n\nAmidst her challenging schedule\, Sara converted to Judaism\, married entrepreneur Jesse Itzler in 2008 and had four children.\n\nDuring the pandemic\, Blakely pledged to give $5\,000\,0 00 to support female-run small businesses.\n\nIn October 2021\, the Blacks tone Group acquired a majority stake of Spanx\, Inc. The company was value d at $1.2 billion. Blakely retained the position as Executive Chairwoman. To celebrate the transaction\, Blakely gave each of her 750 employees $10\ ,000 in cash and let them purchase two first-class plane tickets to any de sired travel destination.\n\nSara Blakely\n\nSara Blakely born February 27 \, 1971 in Clearwater\, Florida and graduated from FSU founded Spanx in At lanta in 1998 at age 27.  Sara was named in Time magazine's "Time 100" an nual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2014\, she w as listed as the 93rd most powerful woman in the world by Forbes.\n\nAltho ugh she planned to become an attorney\, she reconsidered after scoring ver y low on the LSAT\; she instead accepted a job at Disney in Orlando where she worked for three months. She also occasionally worked as a stand-up co median during this period.\n\nAfter her short stint at Disney\, she sold f ax machines door-to-door. She was quite successful in sales and was promot ed to national sales trainer at the age of 25. Forced to wear pantyhose in the hot Floridian climate for her sales role\, she disliked the appearanc e of the seamed foot while wearing open-toed shoes but liked the way that the control-top eliminated panty lines and made her body appear firmer. Fo r a party\, she experimented by cutting off the feet of her pantyhose whil e wearing them under a new pair of slacks and found that the pantyhose con tinuously rolled up her legs\, but she also achieved the desired result.\n \nAt age 27\, Blakely relocated to Atlanta\, Georgia\, and while still wor king at Danka\, the office supply company\, spent the next two year resear ching and developing her hosiery idea.\n\nSara drove to North Carolina\, t he location of most of America's hosiery mills\, to present her idea. She was turned away by every representative\; these companies were used to dea ling with established companies and did not see the value of her idea. Two weeks later Blakely received a call from a mill operator based in Ashebor o\, who offered to support Blakely's concept\, as he had received strong e ncouragement from his three daughters who tried the samples.   Blakely f urther explained that the experience of developing her idea revealed to he r that the hosiery manufacturing industry was overseen solely by men who d o not use the products.\n\nThe creation of the initial product prototype w as completed over the course of a year.\n\nShe arranged a meeting with a r epresentative of the Neiman Marcus\, at which she changed into the product in the ladies’ restroom in the presence of the Neiman Marcus buyer to p rove the benefits of her innovation. Blakely's product was sold in seven N eiman Marcus stores because of the meeting\; Bloomingdales\, Saks\, and Be rgdorf Goodman soon followed. At around this time\, Blakely sent a basket of products to Oprah Winfrey's television program\, with a gift card that explained what she was attempting to develop.\n\nIn November 2000\, Oprah Winfrey named Spanx one of her "Favorite Things\," which led to a signific ant rise in popularity and sales\, as well as Blakely's resignation from h er day job. Spanx achieved $4 million in sales in its first year and $10 m illion in its second year. In 2001\, Blakely signed a contract with QVC\, the home shopping channel.\n\nIn 2012\, Blakely landed on the cover of For bes magazine for being the youngest self-made female billionaire in the wo rld.\n\nIn 2006\, Blakely launched the Sara Blakely Foundation to help wom en through education and entrepreneurial training. Blakely became the firs t female billionaire to join the "Giving Pledge\," Bill Gates and Warren B uffett's pledge\, whereby the world's richest people donate at least half of their wealth to charity.\n\nAmidst her challenging schedule\, Sara conv erted to Judaism\, married entrepreneur Jesse Itzler in 2008 and had four children.\n\nDuring the pandemic\, Blakely pledged to give $5\,000\,000 to support female-run small businesses.\n\nIn October 2021\, the Blackstone Group acquired a majority stake of Spanx\, Inc. The company was valued at $1.2 billion. Blakely retained the position as Executive Chairwoman. To ce lebrate the transaction\, Blakely gave each of her 750 employees $10\,000 in cash and let them purchase two first-class plane tickets to any desired travel destination. ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.tepb.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ WL.jpg CATEGORIES:Featured Events,Women's League END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York X-LIC-LOCATION:America/New_York BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20231105T010000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR