Hattie Carnegie

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Hattie Carnegie (1886 - 1956) was a clothing and jewelry designer based in the United States during the 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s. She was born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary on 15 March 1886 as Henrietta Kanengeiser.

Hattie was the second oldest of seven children. Her father was an artist and tailor and was thought have introduced her to the world of fashion. She was known for her extremely elegant dress designs and exquisite costume jewelry. She also took on some of the most famous American fashion designers of the twentieth century, such as Norman Norell, Pauline Trigère and James Galanos; for nearly a decade, the made-to-order department was headed by Pauline Fairfax Potter. Hattie Carnegie was originally a milliner and owned a successful shop on East Tenth Street in New York named Carnegie - Ladies' Hatter. Despite the fact she had never sewn a seam in her life and had had no formal training, after the success of the hat shop she opened a dress shop in Upper West Side.

Her dress designs were a massive success and soon she had such clients as Joan Crawford and the Duchess of Windsor. Hattie Carnegie's colorful clothing and delighfully lavish costume jewelry, even today, are greatly sought after by fashion and jewelry collectors.

Hattie Carnegie designed the Women's Army Corps (WAC) uniform in 1950. They were adopted for wear on New Year's Day 1951. June 1, 1952 Hattie received the Congressional Medal of Freedom^{[citation needed]} for the WAC uniform design and for her many other charitable and patriotic contributions.^[1] The WAC design was so timelessly elegant that it was still in use for women's U.S. Army uniforms in 1968.^[2]