Commemorating Eleanor Brenner

     I am sadly overdue in sharing the story of the designer Eleanor Brenner.  She is an American woman who has had an influence on the world of fashion for the last half of a century yet has not been heard about nearly enough.  She passed away a year ago (on April 2, 2023) at the age of 89 without a proper fanfare.  Please read her Legacy obituary here.  Despite being a favorite designer of mine, I have kept my interest in her a quietly personal enjoyment for too long.  I wish I had shared my knowledge earlier so as to help others find an appreciation of her life, talent, and legacy while she was still alive.  However, I will be making up for that delay now!  Even though I am no Vogue magazine or New York Times, I am counting on my humble blog post giving her a tribute that those fancy publications did not. 

     This will be a two part post.  Today I am showing the original Eleanor Brenner garments that I own (such as the blazer shown on the left) as an aid to sharing the story of her life and creative process.  Then, there will be a follow-up post showing what I made for myself using one of her obscure yet official sewing pattern designs.  I enjoy writing and posting designer feature presentations such as this for my blog, and I hope you appreciate them too! 

     Eleanor Brenner, a native New Yorker, first gained national acclaim in the 1950s as an interior decorator.  She was featured in Better Homes & Gardens, Good Housekeeping and many other national magazines.  At this point, her clothing designs were primarily for herself, but friends and acquaintances encouraged her to build upon her sewing and design talents.  After gaining a degree from a Fashion Design school in Manhattan, she unfortunately could not find anyone in the fashion industry willing to accept her work.  Some of her interior design clients appreciated her handmade wardrobe and showed an interest in her clothing creations.  One such frequent client of her interior decorating work was the prestigious coat and suit manufacturer Arthur Jablow, who advised her to continue pursuing a career in garment design.  When she began sewing for friends or private commissions, someone wearing her clothes was noticed by an important industry personage, Geraldine Stutz.  That lucky happenstance led to her job as the in-house designer for her first major client, Henri Bendel. 

Designer Eleanor Brenner with fabric selections for her Spring 1992 collection

     She was “pushing racks of clothes around” at Bloomingdale’s working her entry level job when she met her future husband, Richard Brenner, who was an executive there.  They quickly married.  Soon after, the official “Brenner Couture” line was launched in 1968 with her husband as her business partner.  However, Mr. Brenner realized her potential was bigger than their home’s space would permit…and he was supposedly tired of stepping on pins and fabric scraps!!  She finally opened up a studio of her own and was excited to explore what she could achieve! 

     Eleanor Brenner’s specialty was fun but sensible clothes, tailored and proportioned to complement the petite woman.  With such specialty offerings, “Brenner Couture” was a success.  Eleanor Brenner herself was a small framed woman the same 5’ 3” height as myself.  That means I am precisely her target audience.  She was looking for clothes which complimented shorter statures but was versatile to wear from morning to night out for a busy multi-tasking woman like herself.  That suits my needs as well!  By filling in for what she needed back in 1965, she found herself simply filling in a hole missing in ready-to-wear fashion, too.

Ad from 1987

     However, with two young children to enjoy amidst juggling the changing schematics of the fashion scene, Brenner wrapped up her design career in 1979 (when it was a $10 million company).  With a desire to explore other possibilities, she wrote a cookbook on gourmet salt-free cooking which catered to her sudden dietary needs as well as practice on her painting skills.  She did reopen her fashion house in 1983 under the label ‘Eleanor P. Brenner’, only to exit the industry again in 1993.  She and her husband then moved from New York to dedicate time running a program they founded for serving underprivileged youth on their Santa Fe, New Mexico ranch.  Her strength of character and unselfish confidence shines in how she was not afraid to move on from her successful career to focus on doing good works for others.  She excelled in more than just fashion, giving back time and talent to her family and her community as well.  With her designs, she wanted to help give women the clothes they needed to be a strong woman who can do it all, and in that process she herself became a role model for exactly that.  The way she and her husband maintained a loving, co-operative marriage for 56 years through working the couture business together is a great relationship example to learn from.  I look up to Eleanor Brenner in so many ways! 

     If only for being the designer that clothed Mrs. Mondale, wife of the vice-president, for the 1977 Inauguration, I am amazed she is not better respected and known.  Brenner was the official designer for “Washington Whirl Around”, a group staffed by American senator’s and congressmen’s wives.  She designed the uniforms for the women who are the tour guides who escort VIPs visiting the Washington Capitol building.  Brenner’s creations were featured as part of the first official salute to American fashion — the “Suiting Everyone” Bicentennial exhibition at the Smithsonian in 1974.  Yet, there are still so many more reasons than all of what I’ve already mentioned to give her accolades.  Not too many native New Yorkers actually make a name for themselves at home, anyways, and she did it her own way, too!  In 1966, under Henri Bendel, she was the first to offer designer ready-to-wear petite sizes in high-end department stores.  She introduced the perfect clothes for women who were driven to succeed in the corporate world, who had dreams to stand out, and a drive to thrive in clothes that are as clever as they are. 

     “I want my clothes to give each woman positive feelings about herself,” Eleanor Brenner has said.  ”I want my clothes to help a woman say, ‘I like who I am.’”  What a wonderful approach to fashion!  So far every piece of her designs that I have worn have given me such a feeling. Goodness knows, we need more of such kinds of clothes which give an instant confidence boost in stores of today.  She balanced great fabrics, bold prints, creative details, and quality fit at a lower price (for designer clothes at that time) so that her offerings were a given sell-out for those who sought her designs  Yet, for being such a clever creator who found something novel to offer, she said that “We only redefine what’s been done before. Nothing is revolutionary in clothing…unless we start wearing spacesuits” she mused in 1990 to The Morning Call.  

Here I am wearing my 1992 Eleanor Brenner blazer with a me-made satin skirt (posted here).

    In a quest to figure out the feel, fit, and fun of Eleanor Brenner’s clothes, I bought two vintage extant garments from her line before sewing up the Brenner dress in my next post.  My first acquisition was a boldly luxurious silk suit blazer from 1992, as dated by a descriptive newspaper ad.  Suiting coats like this one were her “bread and butter” when she re-opened her business in 1983.  This piece definitely played into Eleanor Brenner’s history of a novelty play on color in her fashions.  ”My clothes are for women who know they are a little more adventurous than the beginner (the very young woman on her first job),” Mrs. Brenner explained in her new showroom just off Seventh Avenue in 1983.  

The trimming on this coat is utterly fantastic and my favorite part. Oversized, standout lapel trim like this is actually back in style this year looking at the Spring 2024 designer suits, such as Alice & Olivia’s “Denny” blazer.  The heavy, golden oversized buttons are the perfect added splash of both class and exuberance.  The rich toned emerald silk is utterly deluxe, too, with a beautiful shine.  Sadly the inner neck of the collar had shattering of the silk, so I have since repaired that with an applied panel of some matching fabric from on hand.  I hope this blazer will be good to go for my wardrobe for many years to come.   

     Next, I acquired a short wool cropped bomber jacket by her, as well.  It dates to the 1980s as the label gives away the decade!  I love that this piece is faithfully after the style of the 1940s.  It mimics the Eisenhower jackets worn by the men in the Pacific Theater late in WWII.  When it is said the 1980s did the 1940s, it is not just a thrown around phrase!  All the pocket room is appreciated, as is the sturdy zipper and full body lining.  This jacket is lightweight but the lofty wool makes it remarkably warm for its lack of bulk.  This piece further proved to me that her garments are high quality, with a dash of the unexpected.  They also run large with their generously fitted shoulders, so I wear a size or two smaller than normal (for 1980s sizing) in her vintage clothes.

     Upon acquiring a pattern from this designer, I was ecstatic to have something from her 1970s repertoire when she was at the height of her first fashion stint.  After finding myself a big fan of hers from both wearing her garments and reading her life’s story, the chance to interpret one of Brenner’s designs for myself through a sewing pattern was *everything* for me.  I found an old advertisement for Brenner’s sewing pattern (which will be in my follow-up post) that listed the original dress as running for $150 in fine stores in 1974.  An inflation calculator says that the dress my pattern is based on would be about $900 today! 

I have also found an “Eleanor P. Brenner” silk shantung pencil skirt from the 1980s with its original Neiman Marcus tag still attached.  The price tag says $130, and the inflation calculator says that would equate to about $500 in 2024 pricing.  Her clothes were high fashion designs indeed. ”They are for the woman who has a fairly frantic life style, wants them to wear a long time and doesn’t want to think about them once she has them,” Mrs. Brenner said in a 1989 New York Times interview. 

     Stay tuned for my next post to see an Eleanor Brenner designed in my own way.  My unique interpretation makes this project unlike anything else I have made and therefore a favorite piece in my wardrobe…in case you needed a major teaser!   Until then, visit my Pinterest board (here) for Eleanor Brenner to browse many examples of her offerings.

Keep in mind this post is the product of several years of dogged research and paid subscriptions to read archived magazines and newspapers. Please respect the time, level of personal interest, and effort which went into this blog post and do not quote, copy, or refer to it without due credit. Thank you for following my blog!