Born 1886 as Henrietta Kanengeiser in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, Hattie Carnegie was a fashion entrepreneur based in New York City from the 1920s to the 1950s. By her early 20s, she had taken the surname Carnegie as an homage to Andrew Carnegie, the richest person in the United States at the time.
Fashion designs by Hattie Carnegie in the 1940s
Hattie Carnegie designs are in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and at the Museum of Lifestyle & Fashion History in Boynton Beach, Florida. An exhibit of the dresses shown at the boutique of Hattie Carnegie was mounted at the Fashion Institute of Technology in 1996. The exhibit, Hattie Carnegie: American Style Defined, was curated by Professor Rose Simon.
Her work is included in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston.
By the time of her death, Carnegie had established an $8 million business. She died in 1956, aged 69. These glamorous photos captured portraits of classic beauties wearing fashion designs by Hattie Carnegie in the 1940s.
Bobby Munroe in a one-shoulder dress by Hattie Carnegie, jewelry by Marvella, photo by Louise Dahl-Wolfe in Havana, Cuba, Harper’s Bazaar, February 1941
Model in gray-blue Shetland tweed suit accented with rust vest, cuffs and hat by Hattie Carnegie, photo by John Rawlings, Vogue, September 1, 1943
Selene Mahri in gray tweed suit holding a platinum fox coat, both by Hattie Carnegie, photo by John Rawlings, Vogue, September 1, 1944
Georgia Carroll in evening dress of mat satin crêpe woven with Enka rayon, a Hattie Carnegie Original, Harper’s Bazaar, November 1945
Lauren Bacall (wearing a silk evening gown for the Summer by Hattie Carnegie and ring by Cartier, Paris) photographed by John Engstead in New York, American Vogue, May 1945
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