Shoshanna Lonstein Gruss

Shoshanna Lonstein Gruss (born May 29, 1975) is an American fashion designer and the founder and creative director of the fashion label Shoshanna, which was launched in 1998.

Shoshanna Lonstein Gruss
Lonstein Gruss in 2009
Born
Shoshanna Lonstein

(1975-05-29) May 29, 1975
Manhattan, New York, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
EducationNightingale-Bamford School
Alma materGeorge Washington University
University of California, Los Angeles
OccupationFashion designer
Years active1998–present
Spouse(s)
Joshua Gruss
(m. 2003; div. 2014)
Children3
Websitewww.shoshanna.com

Early life

Shoshanna Lonstein was born and raised in Manhattan, New York. She attended Nightingale-Bamford School for girls in New York City's Upper East Side, graduating in 1993. She began college at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. but, in 1994, transferred to the University of California, Los Angeles. In 1997, she graduated from UCLA with a bachelor's degree in history and in art history.[1]

Career

With a loan from her father, Zach Lonstein, chief executive officer of Infocrossing, she started her clothing company in 1998 with the mission to design a clothing line that appealed to different body types.[2]

In 2013, Elizabeth Arden, Inc. named Gruss the brand's first-ever Style Director. In this new role, Gruss served as a spokesperson and adviser for the design label.[3]

Television

Gruss has appeared in numerous television programs, webcasts, and interviews, including a 2008 episode of America's Next Top Model.[4]

Personal life
Gruss at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival.

While still a 17-year-old high school student, she met then 38-year-old Jerry Seinfeld in a public park.[5] At that point, Seinfeld got her phone number.[6] 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 referred to her as "a legal voter" since she had turned 18 by then.[7] 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.[1]

On May 10, 2003, Lonstein married Joshua Gruss, son of financier Martin D. Gruss and grandson of financier and philanthropist Joseph S. Gruss.[8][9] Joshua Gruss is a partner at Gruss & Co., a private investment firm based in New York City,[8] and CEO of Round Hill Music.[10] They have three children, a daughter, Sienna, born in 2005 who now models for her, and twins, Angelica and Joseph Colby, born in 2012.[2] The pair divorced in 2014.

She lives on the Upper East Side of Manhattan with her children.[11]

Philanthropy

Gruss is a trustee of the Nightingale-Bamford School and also a member of their Alumnae Board Committee.[12] Gruss was Vice Chairman of the associate committee of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and its Children's Committee from 2012–2014.[13]

References
  1. "Shoshanna Lonstein." Biography in Context. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Gale Biography In Context. Web. 10 Feb. 2011.
  2. "Shoshanna". Shoshanna Inc. Retrieved 2012-08-12.
  3. "Elizabeth Arden Appoints Shoshanna Gruss as Brand's First-Ever Style Director". ElizabethArden.com. Archived from the original on 2014-04-26. Retrieved 2014-04-25.
  4. "America's Next Top Model: If You Can't Make It Here, You Can't Make It Anywhere » Design Scene - Fashion, Photography, Style & Design". Design Scene. 2008-04-08. Retrieved 2014-07-19.
  5. Nigro, Nicholas (June 2015). Seinfeld FAQ: Everything Left to Know About the Show About Nothing. ISBN 9781495035357. he met Shoshanna Lonstein in New York City's Central Park in May 1993, Jerry Seinfeld was thirty-eight and she was only seventeen
  6. Schneider, Karen (28 March 1994). "The Game of Love". Seinfeld, comedian, TV star and life observer, was strolling through Central Park one day in May 1993 when he spotted a stranger he now calls “the most wonderful girl in the world.” Seinfeld, then 38, sallied over, made small talk and went away with the telephone number of Shoshanna Lonstein—then 17
  7. "Spy". February 1994.
  8. New York Times: "WEDDINGS/CELEBRATIONS; Shoshanna Lonstein, Joshua Gruss" May 11, 2003
  9. New York Times: "Joseph Gruss, 91, Philanthropist Who Supported Jewish Schools" By ERIC PACE July 5, 1993
  10. Archived January 8, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  11. Mongelli, Lorena (July 20, 2016). "Seinfeld's ex-girlfriend says bandits made her feel 'beyond violated'". New York Post. Retrieved 28 February 2019.
  12. "Filling a Gap in the Market". Leaders Magazine Online. July 3, 2011. Retrieved 2012-08-12.
  13. "Associated Committee". The Society of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Archived from the original on 2014-11-11.
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