John Pomerantz interview, 1981 November 11 & 1982 March 3

Special Collections and College Archives

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Title
John Pomerantz interview, 1981 November 11 & 1982 March 3
Contributor Names
Pomerantz, John
Finger, Mildred (Interviewer)
Date
1981-11-11
1982-03-03
Date Digitized
2018
Description
DATE INTERVIEWED: November 11, 1981 & March 3, 1982.
SUMMARY: Mildred Finger interviews John Pomerantz of Leslie Fay, Inc.
Mildred Finger interviewed John Pomerantz again at a later date, possibly also in 1982. She also interviewed John Pomerantz's father Fred, and his wife Lauren. There is a much later interview conducted by Alex Joseph in 2017.
BIOGRAPHY: "John J. Pomerantz, president of JJP Advisory, LLC, is former chairman and chief executive officer of Leslie Fay Company, Inc., a manufacturer of women's fashions. Pomerantz retired in 2000 after more than four decades with the company. Pomerantz joined Leslie Fay in 1955, became president in 1971 and chairman and CEO in 1980. At the 2002 American Image Awards, the fashion retailing world honored him for nearly three decades at the helm of one of the country's oldest dressmakers. Pomerantz is a trustee emeritus of FIT, and was a director of its foundation from 1976 to 2010, serving more than ten years as chairman. In 1984, Pomerantz and his wife, Laura, donated $1 million to help launch FIT's $5 million development campaign. In recognition, FIT named its Art and Design Center in honor of his father, Fred P. Pomerantz, founder of Leslie Fay. Pomerantz is a founder and supporter of Albert Einstein College of Medicine and serves on its board of overseers. He supports the arts and is involved in community service, including the Boy Scouts, where he was past chairman of the Greater New York Council. He sits on the executive board of City Meals-on-Wheels. Other board memberships include UJA Federation of New York, Fashion Delivers, and Bachmann-Strauss Dystonia & Parkinson Foundation. Pomerantz graduated from Admiral Farragut Naval Academy in 1951, and earned his BA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. The Pomerantz family includes Johns wife Laura, daughters Andrea Pomerantz Lustig and her husband Mathew, Susie Davis and her husband Kevin, and Marnie Pomerantz MacLean and her husband, Neil. He has five grandchildren, Anna, Michael and James Lustig, and Chelsea and Zachary Davis."
Leslie Fay was founded around 1938, incorporated in 1959, became a public company in 1967, and became "private" once again in 1982, at which time it was estimated to have achieved a volume of about $250,000,000. In 1993 the company experienced a severe accounting scandal, which forced it to declare bankruptcy. The company slowly recovered, however it never reached the same dominance as it previously had.
Type
Sound
Interviews
Oral histories
Subject
Pomerantz, John
Leslie Fay, Inc
Fashion Institute of Technology (New York, N.Y.). Special Collections and College Archives
Clothing trade
Related Materials
Finding Aid
Rights
In Copyright
This video was produced by the Fashion Institute of Technology ("FIT") and is the property of FIT. FIT expressly prohibits the copying, displaying, or uploading to a website of any portion of this video, except for the purposes of fair use as defined in the copyright laws, without express written permission from FIT. This video has been made available online by the Fashion Institute of Technology Gladys Marcus Library strictly for research and educational purposes. If you are the copyright holder for content in this video and have any objections to this work being made available online, please notify us immediately at [email protected].
Identifier
FIT Repository ID: aod_000595
SPARC reference code: US.NNFIT.SC.FITA.3.20.4.9.1.5

Collections

Special Collections and College Archives

Series

Project of the Fashion Industries oral history series, 1977-1990

Citation

Fashion Institute of Technology. (1981, November 11). John Pomerantz interview, 1981 November 11 & 1982 March 3 [Video]. Archive on Demand. https://archiveondemand.fitnyc.edu/item/135905
Fashion Institute of Technology. "John Pomerantz interview, 1981 November 11 & 1982 March 3." Archive on Demand, 11 Nov. 1981, https://archiveondemand.fitnyc.edu/item/135905
Fashion Institute of Technology, "John Pomerantz interview, 1981 November 11 & 1982 March 3," Archive on Demand, November 11, 1981, video, https://archiveondemand.fitnyc.edu/item/135905