Žuži Jelinek

Žuži Jelinek (born Suzana Ferber; 17 July 1920 – 23 January 2016) was a Hungarian-born Croatian fashion stylist, designer, and writer.

Early life Jelinek was born in 1920 in Budapest to poor Jewish parents, Izidor and Ruža Ferber, as the youngest of three children. Her father changed his surname from Farber to Ferber. Jelinek's paternal grandfather was Moritz Farber, a textile merchant from Ludbreg. Her parents were both deaf, her father was from Ludbreg and her mother was from Hungary. They met in Budapest, where they were sent by their families to the only specialized school for deaf people in the area. Jelinek also had two brothers. After Jelinek's birth, her family moved to Zagreb. They lived in a poor part of town. Although Jelinek's aunt, her father's sister, was married to a wealthy Zagreb Jew, Jelinek said that her family didn't benefit from it. Jelinek's aunt was ashamed of her poor deaf brother, so when Jelinek's family visited, she would receive them in the kitchen because, according to Jelinek, they were not good enough for the salons in the house. At that time, Jelinek swore that she would have a successful life. The humiliation experienced in childhood poverty were incentives for her to attain a decent life. She graduated from the Zagreb School of Tailors.

Career and later life Jelinek was only 17 years of age when she began to work in Paris as a seamstress in a factory of Nina Ricci. While in Paris, Jelinek met Coco Chanel, for whom she briefly worked. Because of World War II, Jelinek returned to Zagreb in 1939. In Zagreb, she opened a tailor shop, where she sewed for wealthy Jewish families. Jelinek was also active in language learning. In 1941, she met and married her first husband, Zagreb dentist Dr. Erich Jelinek. From that marriage, Jelinek has two children, son Ivica and daughter Dijana.

Jelinek authored eight books and was from 1994 as a regular columnist to the Croatian women's magazine Gloria. Croatian Radiotelevision produced a documentary which recounts Jelinek's life during her early years of poverty and then her later success. Her last husband was Milorad Ronkulin.

Jelinek was a longtime council member of the Jewish community in Zagreb.

Jelinek died on 23 January 2016, at the age of 95.

Published works Seks liječi sve, Profil, 2004 Žene, osvajajte..., Znanje, 2010 Mijenjaju li se muškarci, Znanje, 2011