Edith Flagg
American fashion designer (1919–2014)
title: "Edith Flagg" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1919-births", "2014-deaths", "jewish-emigrants-from-austria-after-the-anschluss-to-the-united-states", "emigrants-from-austria-after-the-anschluss-to-the-united-states", "romanian-jews", "women-in-world-war-ii", "dutch-resistance-members", "businesspeople-from-los-angeles", "american-fashion-designers", "american-women-fashion-designers", "american-businesspeople-in-fashion", "jewish-fashion-designers", "burials-at-hillside-memorial-park-cemetery", "20th-century-american-philanthropists", "female-wartime-spies", "jewish-women-philanthropists", "jewish-businesswomen", "people-from-galați", "21st-century-american-jews", "20th-century-american-businesswomen", "20th-century-american-businesspeople", "21st-century-american-businesswomen", "20th-century-american-women-philanthropists", "city-of-hope-national-medical-center"] description: "American fashion designer (1919–2014)" topic_path: "history" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Flagg" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary American fashion designer (1919–2014) ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Edith Flagg |
| birth_name | Edith Faierstein |
| birth_date | |
| birth_place | Vienna, Austria |
| death_date | |
| death_place | Century City, California, US |
| nationality | American |
| occupation | Fashion designer, businesswoman, television personality, philanthropist |
| spouse | |
| children | 1 |
| relatives | Josh Flagg (grandson) |
| :: |
| name = Edith Flagg | image = | image_size = | caption = | birth_name = Edith Faierstein | birth_date = | birth_place = Vienna, Austria | death_date = | death_place = Century City, California, US | death_cause = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = | nationality = American | other_names = | known_for = | education = | employer = | occupation = Fashion designer, businesswoman, television personality, philanthropist | title = | networth = | term = | predecessor = | successor = | party = | boards = | spouse = | children = 1 | parents = | relatives = Josh Flagg (grandson) 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. When Hitler annexed Austria in 1938, she fled to the Netherlands with her boyfriend Hans Stein.
She married Hans Stein after they moved to the Netherlands in 1938. Instead of leaving the Netherlands after the German invasion, Flagg took the identity of the deceased Lydia Voskuilen. When she became pregnant with her son Michael, she hid the child in a sanitarium and posed as a nurse in order to visit him. Hans Stein was captured by Germans and sent to Auschwitz where he was murdered in 1944.
After Stein's death, Flagg worked within the Dutch underground resistance where she met her second husband Erich Simon Flegenheimer (later known as Eric Flagg), and after the war they married. 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.
Flagg was the first person to import polyester to the United States and popularize it. She discovered a type of polyester called Crimplene which was being produced by Imperial Chemical Industries out of Leeds, England. The material was used for parachutes and military uniforms during World War II, resulting in a post-war surplus. 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.
She was an active contributor to California Apparel News and Women's Wear Daily in a weekly column titled "By the Way."
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.
References
References
- David Colker. (August 17, 2014). "Edith Flagg dies at 94; L.A. designer helped popularize polyester". Los Angeles Times.
- Dave Lackie. (August 22, 2014). ""A place in the sun; Forget the realtor's gold jacket - Dave Lackie meets Josh Flagg, an agent known as much for clothes as closing deals"". Weekend Post.
- Shirley Halperin. (August 20, 2012). "An Evening With 'Million Dollar Listing' 's Grandma Flagg". The Hollywood Reporter.
- "Edith Flagg". Jewish Women's Archive.
- [http://lamoth.info/?p=digitallibrary/digitalcontent&id=2364 Birth certificate for Edith Faierstein]
- [http://lamoth.info/?p=digitallibrary/digitalcontent&id=2366 Marriage certificate for Edith Faierstein and Erich Simon Flegenheimer; 28 May 1947]
- "Edith Flagg Obituary (2014) Los Angeles Times".
- Lauren Weigle. (October 29, 2014). "Edith Flagg, Josh Flagg's Grandmother: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know". Heavy, Inc.
- Kaelan Hollon. (14 April 2013). "Trailblazer – Edith Flagg". CAKE&WHISKEY.
- Mazuran, Evelyn. (November 21, 1968). "Spring has Many Looks". The Deseret News.
- Ashley Baylen. (August 20, 2012). "Top 20 Under 40 Los Angeles - Josh Flagg". Shalom Life.
- (September 25, 2009). "Authors Corner: Josh Flagg Dishes On His New Book A Simple Girl". The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles.
- Talbot, Victoria. (August 22, 2014). "Edith Flagg, Fashion Pioneer and Philanthropist, Dead at 94". [[The Beverly Hills Courier]].
- (January 20, 2012). "About "Eric Flagg"". Real Integrity Co., Ltd.
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