Designer Chester Weinberg

I've talked about Chester Weinberg in the past, but today I want to show you a few more of his pieces. Weinberg trained at Parsons School of Design and worked at Leonard Arkin and Herbert Sondheim before becoming the designer at Teal-Traina in 1963. In 1966, he struck out on his own with financial backing from William and Edward Parnes, son and nephew of designer Paul Parnes. The dress shown above is from his first collection in the Fall of 1966. Bergdorf Goodman carried his line, and this dress sold for $160 (about $1085 in today's dollar).

Weinberg's designs were always exquisitely tailored and he only used the finest fabrics. “Fabrics set the whole mood of my collection. I cannot design a dress until I know what the fabric will be.” said Weinberg. You can see that high quality fabric and tailoring in the suit shown above, also from the Fall of 1966.

For the Fall of 1967, his fabric choices became a bit more bold. Here, a geometric tent shaped coat in black and white wool.

A vibrant black, green and red chinchilla cloth coat is flared and has a heavy brass zipper at the side. Sold for $190 in 1967 (about $1250 in today's dollar).

In the early 70s, the Chester Weinberg company floundered due to poor sales of the midi lengths he offered. In 1973, he found new financial backing and re-emerged to offer this collection centered around cashmere sweaters. The Weinberg label closed in 1975, but he continued to design for the Jones Apparel Group and Ballantyne Cashmere.