Glass-ceiling-breaking retail executive Rosalind Gersten Jacobs also forged inroads in the world of Surrealist art.
Jacobs, 94, died Dec. 21 at her New York City apartment. The native New Yorker studied drawing and painting early on before graduating from Hunter College and enlisting in Macy’s “training squad” in 1949. She started as an accessories buyer before moving up to head buyer for the retailer’s “Little Shop;” in the early Seventies she was promoted to vice president and fashion director. Her late husband Mel also excelled in the retail sphere, serving in posts including Saks Fifth Avenue’s chairman and chief executive officer. Together they amassed a significant art collection, purchasing many pieces from the artists “Roz” Jacobs befriended during her first buying trip for Macy’s in 1954.
Man Ray, René Magritte, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Dorothea Tanning Ernst, Picasso biographer Roland Penrose, photographer Lee Miller and George Orwell were among the scores of artists and creatives whom Jacobs befriended through the years. Her entrée into the Surrealist world started innocuously enough through a dinner invitation from artists and art patrons Noma and Bill Copley.
Jacobs was close friends with Man Ray and his wife, Juliet, for decades. Regardless of which hotel she was staying
Jacobs, 94, died Dec. 21 at her New York City apartment. The native New Yorker studied drawing and painting early on before graduating from Hunter College and enlisting in Macy’s “training squad” in 1949. She started as an accessories buyer before moving up to head buyer for the retailer’s “Little Shop;” in the early Seventies she was promoted to vice president and fashion director. Her late husband Mel also excelled in the retail sphere, serving in posts including Saks Fifth Avenue’s chairman and chief executive officer. Together they amassed a significant art collection, purchasing many pieces from the artists “Roz” Jacobs befriended during her first buying trip for Macy’s in 1954.
Man Ray, René Magritte, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Dorothea Tanning Ernst, Picasso biographer Roland Penrose, photographer Lee Miller and George Orwell were among the scores of artists and creatives whom Jacobs befriended through the years. Her entrée into the Surrealist world started innocuously enough through a dinner invitation from artists and art patrons Noma and Bill Copley.
Jacobs was close friends with Man Ray and his wife, Juliet, for decades. Regardless of which hotel she was staying