ALL DRESSED UP AND EVERYWHERE TO GO

About to turn 85, the New York fashion icon who launched and has run Bergdorf Goodman personal shopping service since 1976, is writing her memoir. For the first time, Betty will open up about her sometimes-rocky path to a fulfilling life and rewarding work, providing a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the world of high fashion as well as inspiration for women from all backgrounds.

Lena Dunham, 26-year old creator of "Girls" is coproducing a second HBO series - based on Betty Halbreich's memoir.

The beloved dresser and confidante of three generations of Manhattan socialites and such stars as Joan Rivers, Meryl Streep, Sarah Jessica Parker, Katie Couric, Glenn Close, and Estee and Aerin Lauder has earned legions of fans for her frank advice, her unparalleled eye for fashion, her tart one-liners, and her down-to-earth, unpretentious attitude.

Betty may be a successful and beloved figure today, but she wasn't always the self-assured woman her clients know and love.

After a sheltered upbringing as an only child in a wealthy Chicago family, she married at twenty and had her first child at twenty-one. She shopped her way through her twenties and thirties using the allowance that was left on her dresser each morning. When her marriage dissolved after an eye-opening stint in an institution, Betty found herself alone for the first time in her life, completely unprepared for her newfound independence. It was then that she began to find her voice. She eventually convinced Ira Neimark to let her launch the Bergdorf Goodman personal shopping service, where she became much more than New York's premier personal shopper. She became confidante and inspiration to clients, encouraging them to find their own voices via the mirror, both in their wardrobes and their lives.

And despite her success, Betty insists on remaining accessible to all, no matter how much they have to spend. In many ways she remains much closer to her middle-America roots, which will delight women from all parts of the country looking for inspiration and insider tips on how to look, feel, and live their best.
Betty is the author of SECRETS OF A FASHION THERAPIST (HarperCollins, 1998). She is featured in the book "Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf Goodman" (HarperDesign, 2012), and "stole the show" in the documentary of the same name. She has appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, Good Day New York, MSNBC, The O'Reilly Factor, and more, and in such outlets as People, Entertainment Weekly, New York Magazine, In Style, Mademoiselle, Redbook, Self, The Wall Street Journal, The Chicago Tribune, and many more. She has spoken at such outlets as Target, Barnes & Noble, and The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology.

In addition to her work with her numerous celebrity clients, her Studio Services is the premier resource for fashion stylists and consultants for movies and TV shows; she helped design the signature look for Sex and the City and captured the New York style of the early Woody Allen films, among many others.