| The style maven Betty Halbreich was a mere eighty-five years old when The New Yorker’s Judith Thurman joined her for a tour of Bergdorf Goodman, back in 2012. In addition to the displays of high-end clothing and accessories—Prada, Chanel, Alaïa—Halbreich, a longtime personal shopper, led the writer through expanses of the store that were not intended for public view, an unglamorous “alternative reality” where goods are stored and transported. Each workday, Halbreich explained, she completed the eight-story journey, appraising new offerings and making her own judgments. “I don’t read fashion magazines,” she told Thurman. Unlike so much else in the fashion industry, Halbreich contained more than met the eye. A bride at twenty, she had arrived in her role at Bergdorf well into middle age, following a series of personal setbacks that sometimes made it hard to get out of bed. She didn’t simply flatter clients into buying the most expensive items—presumably to the department store’s chagrin—but there was a logic to her methods, and she spoke persuasively about the connection between style and psychology. Halbreich died late last month, at age ninety-six. In the years since her New Yorker profile, she had attracted tens of thousands of followers on Instagram, where she shared thoughts and reflections that were filmed in her office. Her rate of posting had slowed during her final year, but she clearly liked to keep busy. Her penultimate message, shared weeks before her death, announced the completion of a new book, featuring a foreword by Lena Dunham, that will be published next year. | 
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