Shoshanna Lonstein Gruss

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

Shoshanna Lonstein Gruss
A portrait of Shoshanna Lonstein-Gruss at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival
Lonstein-Gruss at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival
Born
Shoshanna Lonstein

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

Early life

Shoshanna Lonstein was born and raised in Manhattan, New York, to a Jewish family. She attended Nightingale-Bamford School for girls in New York City's Upper East Side, graduating in 1993. While still a 17-year-old high school student, she met then 38-year-old Jerry Seinfeld in a public park.[1] At that point, Seinfeld got her phone number.[2] 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.[3] 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 constant press coverage and missing New York City as reasons for the relationship ending.[4]

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.[5]

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.[6]

Television

Gruss has appeared in numerous television programs, webcasts, and interviews, including a 2008 episode of America's Next Top Model.[7]

Personal life
Lonstein-Gruss in 2009

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 and who now models for her; and twins, Angelica and Joseph Colby, born in 2012.[5] The pair divorced in 2014.

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

Philanthropy

Gruss is a trustee of Reform synagogue Temple Emanu-El of New York,[12] and the Nightingale-Bamford School where she is also a member of their Alumnae Board Committee.[13] Gruss was Vice Chairman of the associate committee of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and its Children's Committee from 2012–2014.[14]

References
  1. Nigro, Nicholas (June 2015). Seinfeld FAQ: Everything Left to Know About the Show About Nothing. Hal Leonard Corporation. 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
  2. Schneider, Karen (March 28, 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
  3. "Party Poop". Spy. Vol. 8, no. 4. February 1994. p. 32.
  4. "Shoshanna Lonstein." Biography in Context. Detroit: Gale, 2003. February 10, 2011.
  5. "Shoshanna". Shoshanna Inc. Archived from the original on January 2, 2013. Retrieved August 12, 2012.
  6. "Elizabeth Arden Appoints Shoshanna Gruss as Brand's First-Ever Style Director". ElizabethArden.com. Archived from the original on April 26, 2014. Retrieved April 25, 2014.
  7. "America's Next Top Model: If You Can't Make It Here, You Can't Make It Anywhere". Design Scene. April 8, 2008. Retrieved July 19, 2014.
  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 February 28, 2019.
  12. "About us". Temple Emanu-El of New York. Retrieved August 17, 2020.
  13. "Filling a Gap in the Market". Leaders Magazine Online. July 3, 2011. Retrieved August 12, 2012.
  14. "Associated Committee". The Society of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Archived from the original on November 11, 2014.
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