Edith Flagg

Edith Flagg (née Faierstein, also known as Feuerstein; November 1, 1919 – August 13, 2014) was an Austrian-born American fashion designer, fashion industry executive, and philanthropist. She was the first designer to import polyester as a fashion textile to America. In her later life, Flagg became known for her recurring role on the Bravo television program Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles with her grandson Josh Flagg.

Early life Edith Flagg was born Edith Faierstein to a Jewish family on November 1, 1919, in Vienna, Austria. She was raised in Galați, Romania, where her father worked as a photographer. At the age of 15 she returned to Vienna to study fashion and lived in Austria through her teenage years. Together they were responsible for saving several lives. She acted as a spy, swimming with Nazi soldiers and relaying what she overheard. Eric then moved to the United States and Edith and Michael lived on a kibbutz in Palestine, what would soon become Israel. Edith and Michael followed Eric to the United States and while Eric worked in New York, Edith and Michael moved to San Francisco and lived with Hans' parents. Edith, Eric and Michael then moved to Los Angeles in 1949.

Career Flagg started her career after arriving in New York in 1948 as a seamstress, progressing to design, then later in Los Angeles, California, working in the Garment District. She began her first line of dresses in 1956 with a $2,000 investment of her own savings. As of 2012, the company reportedly afforded her a net worth of $100 million. Edith Flagg, Inc. expanded from a successful dress manufacturing company in Los Angeles to an international design house with offices and showrooms in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Cleveland, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, Charlotte and London, as well as a factory in Hong Kong.

Philanthropy She was a donor to the United Jewish Welfare Fund, a Jewish non-profit organization, and the City of Hope, a private hospital in California.

Flagg retired in 2000 to concentrate on her philanthropy, focusing on Jewish and medical causes. Proceeds from her biography A Simple Girl: Stories My Grandmother Told Me were donated to the Jewish Federation.

Personal life Flagg spoke Yiddish, Hebrew, Romanian, English, French, German and Dutch.

Death She died on August 13, 2014, in her penthouse in Century City of natural causes. She was ninety-four years old. She was buried at the Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery, a Jewish cemetery in Culver City, California, and the reception took place at the Hillcrest Country Club.