Shoshanna Lonstein-Gruss (born May 29, 1975) is an American writer and

fashion designer Fashion is a form of self-expression and autonomy at a particular period and place and in a specific context, of clothing, footwear, lifestyle, accessories, makeup, hairstyle, and body posture. The term implies a look defined by the fashion in ...

and the founder and creative director of the fashion label Shoshanna, which was launched in 1998.

Early life

Shoshanna Lonstein was born and raised in Manhattan, New York, to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family. She attended

Nightingale-Bamford School The Nightingale-Bamford School is an independent all-female university-preparatory school founded in 1920 by Frances Nicolau Nightingale and Maya Stevens Bamford. Located in Manhattan on the Upper East Side, Nightingale-Bamford is a member of th ...

for girls in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Upper East Side The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 96th Street to the north, the East River to the east, 59th Street to the south, and Central Park/Fifth Avenue to the wes ...

, graduating in 1993. While still a 17-year-old high school student, she met then 38-year-old

Jerry Seinfeld Jerome Allen Seinfeld ( ; born April 29, 1954) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and producer. He is best known for playing a Jerry Seinfeld (character), semi-fictionalized version of himself in the sitcom ''Seinfeld'', which he ...

in a public park. At that point, Seinfeld got her phone number. Lonstein later came to public attention by dating Seinfeld, who was at the time starring in his eponymous sitcom. Early in their relationship, ''

Spy Magazine ''Spy'' was a satirical monthly magazine published from 1986 to 1998. Based in New York City, the magazine was founded by Kurt Andersen and E. Graydon Carter, who served as its first editors, and Thomas L. Phillips Jr., its first publisher. ''S ...

'' referred to her as "a legal voter", since she had turned 18 by then. They dated for approximately four years, from 1993 to 1997, before the relationship ended. She transferred from GW to UCLA, in part to be with Seinfeld, and cited missing New York City and constant press coverage as reasons for the relationship ending."Shoshanna Lonstein." Biography in Context. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Gale Biography In Context. Web. 10 Feb. 2011.

Career

With a loan from her father, Zach Lonstein,

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

of Infocrossing, she started her clothing company in 1998 with the mission to design a clothing line that appealed to different body types. In 2013,

Elizabeth Arden, Inc. Elizabeth Arden, Inc. is a major American cosmetics, skin care and fragrance company founded by Elizabeth Arden. As of September 7, 2016, the company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Revlon, Inc. History The company was founded as ''Red Door'' ...

named Gruss the brand's first-ever Style Director. In this new role, Gruss served as a spokesperson and adviser for the design label.

Television

Gruss has appeared in numerous television programs, webcasts, and interviews, including a 2008 episode of ''

America's Next Top Model ''America's Next Top Model'' (abbreviated ''ANTM'' and ''Top Model'') is an American reality television series and interactive competition in which a number of aspiring models compete for the title of "America's Next Top Model" and a chance to b ...

''.

Personal life

On May 10, 2003, Lonstein married Joshua Gruss, son of financier Martin D. Gruss and grandson of financier and philanthropist

Joseph S. Gruss Joseph Saul Gruss (March 19, 1903 – July 3, 1993)

.New York Times: "WEDDINGS/CELEBRATIONS; Shoshanna Lonstein, Joshua Gruss"
May 11, 2003 Joshua Gruss is a partner at Gruss & Co., a private investment firm based in

, and CEO of Round Hill Music. They have three children: a daughter, Sienna, born in 2005 and who now models for her; and twins, Angelica and Joseph Colby, born in 2012. The pair divorced in 2014. She lives on the

of Manhattan with their children.

Philanthropy

Gruss is a trustee of

Reform Reform ( lat, reformo) means the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The use of the word in this way emerges in the late 18th century and is believed to originate from Christopher Wyvill#The Yorkshire Associati ...

synagogue

Temple Emanu-El of New York Congregation Emanu-El of New York is the first Reform Jewish congregation in New York City and, because of its size and prominence, has served as a flagship congregation in the Reform branch of Judaism since its founding in 1845. The congregati ...

, and the

where she is also a member of their Alumnae Board Committee. Gruss was Vice Chairman of the associate committee of the

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK or MSKCC) is a cancer treatment and research institution in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, founded in 1884 as the New York Cancer Hospital. MSKCC is one of 52 National Cancer Institute– ...

and its Children's Committee from 2012–2014.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gruss, Shoshanna Lonstein 1975 births Living people 20th-century American businesswomen 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American women artists 21st-century American businesswomen 21st-century American businesspeople 21st-century American women artists American fashion designers American women fashion designers Artists from New York City Businesspeople from New York City Jewish American philanthropists George Washington University alumni Jewish fashion designers Nightingale-Bamford School alumni People from the Upper East Side University of California, Los Angeles alumni