Betsey Johnson was born on 10th August 1942, in Wethersfield, Connecticut USA. She is a fashion icon, a designer whose style became more and more popular during the ‘70s. One of the things for which she is known in the industry is the cartwheel and the split she does at the end of her fashion shows.
So just how rich is Betsey Johnson? Her net worth was estimated at $50 million, all money having been made in the fashion industry. Betsey Johnson lives in a junior suite hotel-like apartment in Upper East Side in New York, which she bought in 2008 for $1.8 million. She also owns a 2,900 square feet 4-bedroom house in East Hampton, which she wants to sell for about $2 million in order to move to Malibu.
Betsey Johnson Net Worth $50 Million
Betsey Johnson began her studies at the Pratt Institute and then she transferred to Syracuse University, from which she graduated in 1964. After graduation, she started her career in the fashion industry as an intern at Mademoiselle Magazine, a job she had won at the magazine’s Guest Editor Contest. In 1965, she had her first job as a designer at Paraphernalia, a clothing boutique in New York. She really started earning money at the beginning of the ‘70s, right with her first collection made for Alley Cat, which had sales of $5 million. Converted to 2015 money, this means about $30 million. She became famous at the end of the ‘70s, when she started launching her own collections. Her style includes puffed sleeves, neon dyes, low waists and deep necklines.
In 1978, she started her own company and in 1981 she opened her first store in the Soho area of New York. After a few years at the beginning on the ‘80s, Betsey Johnson started building a small empire, and around 2000 she had 63 stores, about 350 employees and her company was producing sales of about $150 million a year. When the economy tanked, Betsey Johnson LLC had to file for bankruptcy protection and, in 2012, most of the stores were closed. This didn’t seem to have compromised the brand, and Betsey Johnson reinvented herself inside Steve Madden’s business, who took over her company.
After the bankruptcy, Betsey Johnson and her daughter Lulu had their own reality show, aired by Style Network. The fashion designer was also part of the cast in the 19th season of “Dancing with the Stars”, a television show in which she was eliminated after four weeks.
Betsey Johnson received her first important award when she was only 29, the 1971 Coty Fashion Critics Award. She was also rewarded with the CFDA’s Timeless Talent Award and the Pratt Institute Award and she was inducted into the Fashion Walk of Fame. In 2009, the designer received the Medal of Honor for Lifetime Achievement in Fashion from the National Arts Club. Betsey still organizes runway shows twice a year.
Betsey Johnson was married three times: to the musician John Cale(1968-69), to Jeffrey Oliviere(1981-1991)), and then to Brian Reynolds(1997-separated). The fashion designer has a daughter, Lulu, with whom she appeared in the reality show “XOX Betsey Johnson”, aired by Style Network in 2013.
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