Shoshanna Lonstein Gruss

Last updated

Shoshanna Lonstein Gruss
Shoshanna Lonstein Gruss at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival.jpg
Lonstein-Gruss at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival
Born
Shoshanna Lonstein

(1975-05-29) May 29, 1975 (age 48)
Manhattan, New York, U.S.
Education Nightingale-Bamford School
Alma mater George Washington University
University of California, Los Angeles
OccupationFashion designer
Years active1998present
Spouse
Joshua Gruss
(m. 2003;div. 2014)
Children3
Website www.shoshanna.com

Shoshanna Lonstein-Gruss (born May 29, 1975) is an American writer and fashion designer and the founder and creative director of the fashion label Shoshanna, which was launched in 1998.

Contents

Early life

Shoshanna Lonstein was born and raised in Manhattan, New York, to a Jewish family. She attended Nightingale-Bamford School for girls in New York City's Upper East Side, graduating in 1993. While still a 17-year-old high school student, she met then 38-year-old Jerry Seinfeld in a public park. [1] At that point, Seinfeld got her phone number. [2] Lonstein later came to public attention by dating Seinfeld, who was at the time starring in his eponymous sitcom. Early in their relationship, Spy Magazine referred to her as "a legal voter", since she had turned 18 by then. [3] They dated for approximately four years, from 1993 to 1997, before the relationship ended. She transferred from George Washington University to UCLA, in part to be with Seinfeld, and cited constant press coverage and missing New York City as reasons for the relationship ending. [4]

Career

With a loan from her father, Zach Lonstein, chief executive officer of Infocrossing, she started her clothing company in 1998 with the mission to design a clothing line that appealed to different body types. [5]

In 2013, Elizabeth Arden, Inc. named Gruss the brand's first-ever Style Director. In this new role, Gruss served as a spokesperson and adviser for the design label. [6]

Television

Gruss has appeared in numerous television programs, webcasts, and interviews, including a 2008 episode of America's Next Top Model . [7]

Personal life

Lonstein-Gruss in 2009 Shoshanna Lonstein Gruss.jpg
Lonstein-Gruss in 2009

On May 10, 2003, Lonstein married Josh Gruss, son of financier Martin D. Gruss and grandson of financier and philanthropist Joseph S. Gruss. [8] [9] Joshua Gruss is a partner at Gruss & Co., a private investment firm based in New York City, [8] and CEO of Round Hill Music. [10] They have three children: a daughter, Sienna, born in 2005 and who now models for her; and twins, Angelica and Joseph Colby, born in 2012. [5] The pair divorced in 2014.

She lives on the Upper East Side of Manhattan with their children. [11]

Philanthropy

Gruss is a trustee of Reform synagogue Temple Emanu-El of New York, [12] and the Nightingale-Bamford School where she is also a member of their Alumnae Board Committee. [13] Gruss was Vice Chairman of the associate committee of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and its Children's Committee from 2012–2014. [14]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jerry Seinfeld</span> American comedian and actor (born 1954)

Jerome Allen Seinfeld is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and producer. From 1989 to 1998, he played a semi-fictionalized version of himself in the sitcom Seinfeld, which he created and wrote with Larry David. The show aired on NBC from 1989 until 1998, becoming one of the most acclaimed and popular sitcoms of all time. As a stand-up comedian, Seinfeld specializes in observational comedy. In 2004, Comedy Central named him the 12th-greatest stand-up comedian of all time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth Arden</span> Canadian-American businesswoman

Elizabeth Arden, also known as Elizabeth N. Graham, was a Canadian-American businesswoman who founded what is now Elizabeth Arden, Inc., and built a cosmetics empire in the United States. By 1929, she owned 150 salons in Europe and the United States. Her 1,000 products were being sold in 22 countries. She was the sole owner, and at the peak of her career, she was one of the wealthiest women in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marie-Josée Kravis</span> Canadian businesswoman and philanthropist

Marie-Josée Kravis is a Canadian businesswoman and philanthropist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center</span> Treatment and research hospital in New York City

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center is a cancer treatment and research institution in Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1884 as the New York Cancer Hospital. MSKCC is one of 72 National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers. It had already been renamed and relocated, to its present site, when the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research was founded in 1945, and built adjacent to the hospital. The two medical entities formally coordinated their operations in 1960, and formally merged as a single entity in 1980. Its main campus is located at 1275 York Avenue between 67th and 68th Streets in Manhattan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helen Farr Sloan</span> American painter

Helen Farr Sloan was a patron of the arts, educator, accomplished artist, and the second wife of artist John Sloan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nightingale-Bamford School</span> Private school in Manhattan, New York

The Nightingale-Bamford School is an independent all-female university-preparatory school founded in 1920 by Frances Nicolau Nightingale and Maya Stevens Bamford. Located in Manhattan on the Upper East Side, Nightingale-Bamford is a member of the New York Interschool consortium.

<i>NYC Prep</i> US television series

NYC Prep is an American reality television series on Bravo. The series debuted on June 23, 2009. The series follows six Manhattan teenagers in their daily lives as they attended events such as weekend parties, fashion shows, shopping sprees, charity events and dinner parties. The series drew many comparisons to the hit CW television show Gossip Girl because both shows revolved around the lives of Manhattan's "elite" teenagers. Filming was not allowed during school, nor were any school names specifically mentioned on the show, as the schools desired to distance themselves from the show.

Rena Kirdar is an Iraqi socialite.

Shoshana is a Hebrew feminine first name. It is the name of at least two women in the Bible and, via Σουσάννα, it developed into such European and Christian names as Susanna, Susan, Susanne, Susana, Susannah, Suzanne, Susie, Suzie, Sanna and Zuzana. In Ethiopia it became Sosie, Sosina, Sosena, while in North Africa it yielded Sawsen and Sawsan.

Alice Roi is an American fashion designer. Her work has appeared in magazines such as Bazaar, Elle, Nylon, and in stores like Henri Bendel, Beauty Buy (Paris), and Joyce. She was nominated for the CFDA Perry Ellis Award for Womenswear in 2001.

Iris Cantor is an American philanthropist based in New York City and Los Angeles, with a primary interest in medicine and the arts. Cited as among the 50 top contributors in the United States, as head of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation, her foundation has donated several hundred million dollars to museums, universities and hospitals since 1978.

Elizabeth (Schultz) Rigg (1921–2001) was a singer and pianist who was a direct descent of Francis Lightfoot Lee, a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence. Rigg worked as a Cabaret actress. Adopting the stage name of Suzanne Gilbert, she performed at the American Theatre Wing, the Biltmore Hotel, and the Stage Door Canteen in New York City. Performing in the Fred Astaire ballroom dance competitions, Rigg won multiple first place awards. She also starred in the play Toys in the Attic, performed at the Hudson Guild in Manhattan in 1972.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gladys Fries Harriman</span> American philanthropist, equestrian and big game hunter

Gladys Fries Harriman (1896–1983) was an American philanthropist, equestrian and big game hunter. She was an executive at the American Red Cross. She became one of the first female equestrian drivers and big game hunters.

Joseph Saul Gruss was an Austro-Hungarian Empire–born American financier, businessman, and philanthropist who supported Jewish education.

Adele Lewisohn Lehman was an American philanthropist and member of the Lehman family.

Ora Mendelsohn Rosen was an American medical researcher who investigated the influence of hormones, particularly insulin, on the control of cell growth. She was a professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Viviane Tabar is an American neurosurgeon, the Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York since 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julia Koch</span> American heiress (born 1962)

Julia Margaret Flesher Koch is an American socialite and philanthropist who is one of the richest women in the world. In the annual Forbes ranking for April 2023, she ranked second among the richest women in the world with a fortune of $59 billion. She inherited her fortune from her husband, David Koch, who died in 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dayssi Olarte de Kanavos</span> Colombian-American socialite

Dayssi Olarte de Kanavos is a Colombian-American socialite, philanthropist, and real estate developer. She is the president and chief operating officer of Flag Luxury Group, a New York-based real estate development company that she co-founded with her husband in 1997. Olarte de Kanavos serves on the board of New Yorkers For Children and has served as a committee member for Save Venice Inc., Alliance française, and the Met Gala. She was listed in a Vogue best-dressed list in 1999 and was featured on the cover of Town & Country in 2000.

Carol L. Brown is the Nicholls-Biondi Chair for Health Equity at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and a professor at Weill Cornell Medical College. She is a surgeon known for her work on gynecological cancers.

References

  1. Nigro, Nicholas (June 2015). Seinfeld FAQ: Everything Left to Know About the Show About Nothing. Hal Leonard Corporation. ISBN   9781495035357. he met Shoshanna Lonstein in New York City's Central Park in May 1993, Jerry Seinfeld was thirty-eight and she was only seventeen
  2. Schneider, Karen (March 28, 1994). "The Game of Love". Seinfeld, comedian, TV star and life observer, was strolling through Central Park one day in May 1993 when he spotted a stranger he now calls 'the most wonderful girl in the world.' Seinfeld, then 38, sallied over, made small talk and went away with the telephone number of Shoshanna Lonstein—then 17
  3. "Party Poop". Spy . Vol. 8, no. 4. February 1994. p. 32.
  4. "Shoshanna Lonstein." Biography in Context. Detroit: Gale, 2003. February 10, 2011.
  5. 1 2 "Shoshanna". Shoshanna Inc. Archived from the original on January 2, 2013. Retrieved August 12, 2012.
  6. "Elizabeth Arden Appoints Shoshanna Gruss as Brand's First-Ever Style Director". ElizabethArden.com. Archived from the original on April 26, 2014. Retrieved April 25, 2014.
  7. "America's Next Top Model: If You Can't Make It Here, You Can't Make It Anywhere". Design Scene. April 8, 2008. Retrieved July 19, 2014.
  8. 1 2 New York Times: "WEDDINGS/CELEBRATIONS; Shoshanna Lonstein, Joshua Gruss" May 11, 2003
  9. New York Times: "Joseph Gruss, 91, Philanthropist Who Supported Jewish Schools" By ERIC PACE July 5, 1993
  10. Archived January 8, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  11. Mongelli, Lorena (July 20, 2016). "Seinfeld's ex-girlfriend says bandits made her feel 'beyond violated'". New York Post. Retrieved February 28, 2019.
  12. "About us". Temple Emanu-El of New York . Retrieved August 17, 2020.
  13. "Filling a Gap in the Market". Leaders Magazine Online. July 3, 2011. Retrieved August 12, 2012.
  14. "Associated Committee". The Society of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Archived from the original on November 11, 2014.