OverDressed for Life

When her children asked me to go through her closets after she died, I revisited all the clothes I’d introduced her to. Only now, as they went from objects of desire to pieces of nostalgia, they took on a new and painful meaning. The Bill Blass dresses she’d once accessorized looked forgotten; the Givenchy pantsuits that had framed her elegantly seemed as important as a dishrag. Her girls asked me if there was anything I wanted from the vast amount of clothing. Yes, a Geoffrey Beene navy-and-white dress, which I still wear. Even more than Mr. Beene’s remarkable construction, it is the human connection that I treasure.

– Betty Halbreich, personal shopper at Bergdorf Goodman.

This quote is taken from Ms. Halbreich’s memoir –  I’ll Drink to That: A Life in Style, With a Twist (Penguin Press, 2014).