Anne Klein (fashion designer)
American fashion designer (1923–1974)
Anne Klein (born Hannah Golofsky; August 3, 1923 – March 19, 1974) was an American fashion designer, businesswoman, as well as a founder and the namesake of the Anne Klein & Company (owned by WHP Global as of July 2019).
She co-founded Anne Klein & Company in 1968 with Gunther Oppenheim, and within ten years, her designs were being sold in over 750 department stores and boutiques in the USA.
Her design career began in 1937, at the age of 14, when she was offered a scholarship to attend the Traphagen School of Fashion, which led to her first job as a sketcher for dress firms on 7th Avenue.
In 1948 she married clothing manufacturer Ben Klein, with whom she launched the Junior Sophisticates clothing line. Junior Sophisticates offered styles for younger women with smaller figures. Anne Klein was the principal designer there until 1960, when her marriage ended. In 1963, she married her second husband, Matthew "Chip" Rubinstein. Together, they founded Anne Klein & Company on 39th Street in 1968. She also opened the Anne Klein Studio on 57th Street.
A large aspect of her brand is centered around the understanding of the average working women’s clothing needs, as well as women empowerment in the broader perspective.
Her journey was first recognized in 1954 with the Mademoiselle Merit Award, and further on, through numerous fashion awards and international recognition.
“Anne Klein (fashion designer)” enters the record as american fashion designer (1923–1974). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Anne, Klein and fashion can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Anne Klein (fashion designer)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Anne, Klein and fashion provides the most credible route into that argument.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q611363. VIAF identifies the subject as 51264100. The Library of Congress control number is no94006362. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1923, 1974, 2019 and 1968.
Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Anne Klein (fashion designer)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Anne Klein (fashion designer) primary sources, Anne Klein (fashion designer) archive and Anne research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Anne Klein (fashion designer)”?
- Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Anne Klein (fashion designer)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.