Betsy Bloomingdale: A Life in Style

Few society figures remain as iconic as Betsy Bloomingdale. A true emblem of glamour and style, she epitomised the confidence of a post-war United States — a moment in history in which the sun-soaked terraces and candlelit tables of southern California captured the world’s imagination.

Forever draped in haute couture, jewels, and an irresistible smile, Betsy Bloomingdale was a woman defined by joyful elegance.

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Synonymous with style, glamour, and philanthropy, her private collection — Betsy Bloomingdale: A Life in Style — will be offered across two Christie’s sales, beginning with iconic pieces from her jewellery collection in the Magnificent Jewels auction on 7 December in New York. In this video, Senior International Director of Jewellery Tom Burstein discusses the collection and takes a closer look at some of the standout pieces.

From a young age, the collector absorbed the hallmarks of good taste in the California fashion: a combination of intuition and confidence. ‘To me, style in anything you do, whether dressing, entertaining, collecting, whatever, is a sureness of choice,’ Mrs. Bloomingdale remarked in her later years. ‘It can be learned, it can be developed, but to be successful, it mustn’t be perceived.’

In 1946, Betsy Bloomingdale married department store heir and future Diners Club chairman Alfred S. Bloomingdale, the ‘father of the credit card’, with whom she would have three children. Throughout the latter decades of the 20th century the Bloomingdales came to stand as influential figures in business, politics, culture and fashion. With homes in Los Angeles, New York, and Washington, they inhabited the world of the newly inaugurated jet set.

Among their inner circle, the Bloomingdales counted some of America’s most notable families: names such as Kempner, Buckley, Forbes, Paley, Annenberg and, most famously, Reagan.

Видео Betsy Bloomingdale: A Life in Style канала Christie's