The store closes, the gowns go on
Bernstein’s Fashions owner donates its upscale inventory to the NCJW thrift shop
“Everything has a beginning and an end,” Anne Cohen of Somerset said.
She was talking about Bernstein’s Fashions in Edison, a store that her family had owned for 70 years and she closed in June.
Her grandfather Max Bernstein opened a clothing factory in New Brunswick before World War II. “He employed many of the women in New Brunswick whose husbands were serving in the war,” Ms. Cohen said. “They made uniforms and anything else needed for the war effort.” During the war, her father, Charles Wiener, and her uncle, George Rubenstein, were overseas, serving in the U.S. armed forces, and her mother, Georgia Bernstein, was still in high school.
“My father and mother met on a train en route to New Brunswick before the war,” she said. (Mr. Wiener was going to Rutgers and Ms. Bernstein was headed to Douglass.) “Upon my father and my uncle’s return, my father, my mother, my aunt and my uncle expanded the factory and opened a retail operation, Bernstein’s Fashions, inside it. When my grandfather retired, it was my father who ran the business and my aunt who ran the alterations department.
“In the early 1950s, my parents moved the store to Highland Park.”
Ms. Cohen’s husband, Herbert, owned an orchestra based in Westchester County called Harbor Lights Music, and she was a professional singer. “We met there in 1978, played weddings, bar mitzvahs, and social functions all over the tristate area, and got married in 1980,” she said. “I would sing with him on the weekends and work in the store all week— I had a third share in the business.”
Ms. Cohen did not become a full owner of Bernstein’s Fashions until her parents retired. “I was the only family member of my generation in the business,” she said. “I bought the shop 21 years ago, my parents sold the building in Highland Park, and I moved the store to Edison.” The successful boutique, best known for its large and varied selection of designer eveningwear, was in business for over 45 years.
“The shop was an institution in the community,” Ms. Cohen said. “We served our customers very well.” In addition to selling her formal wear, Ms. Cohen often contacted private vendors and other designers who would create dresses specific to the customer’s needs. “I sold only in Bernstein’s,” she said. “I did not go to other stores to sell them.” Bernstein’s did not carry names that were sold in bridal shops.
The business changed drastically during the pandemic, Ms. Cohen said, and so did her life. Herbert Cohen died in 2021.
Ms. Cohen coped with her new circumstances. “I always plan ahead in my life, so if life shifts, I’m not left stranded,” she said. “I decided to get my real estate license when I was 58 years old and started working for a real estate business, Compass Real Estate, selling to adult communities.
Anne and Herbert Cohen raised their children in Paramus and lived there for approximately 20 years. “We moved to Chatham, then Bedminster, before choosing an adult community for ourselves, Canal Walk, in Somerset.
“Closing the store was a step forward for me,” she said. “I am so busy with my real estate work, I no longer have a fear of what I’m going to do with my life.” While closing Bernstein’s Fashions on June 30 was a difficult decision, Ms. Cohen knew that the store had a good 70-year run. “When your customers listen to you, trust you and the end result is a chance to see that smile in the mirror, you know you’ve done something right,” she said. “My family is very proud of everything we did.”
Ms. Cohen explained that the average customer who frequented her store would not know the names or brands she sold. “But I knew my inventory and knew what might sell at a resale shop,” she said. “I wanted to support the Jewish community in a meaningful way. So if I facilitated an opportunity for someone who otherwise couldn’t afford to buy a dress like those sold in my shop, it would bring me great joy.”
Ms. Cohen considered just where to donate the inventory left once she closed Bernstein’s. She consulted with her close friend Beth Chananie of Paramus, the Jewish Standard’s community editor. “Anne has been my dear friend for over 40 years,” Ms. Chananie said. “Not only did our children attend nursery school together at the Jewish Community Center of Paramus, but Anne dressed me for three b’nai mitzvahs and a number of weddings.
“Bernstein’s Fashions was a truly historic store,” she added. “They had scores of devoted repeat customers. So when Anne asked if I knew of a worthy outlet where she could donate her shop’s unsold gowns, I immediately thought of the National Council for Jewish Women’s Bergen County section’s thrift store in Bergenfield. I knew they’d be thrilled to receive her inventory of gorgeous new gowns.”
Fran Einiger of Hackensack, a vice president of the NCJW’s Bergenfield store with Pauline Hecht of Bergenfield, got a call from her volunteer coordinator, Marcia Kopeloff. “We’re getting some dresses,” Ms. Kopeloff told her.
“No one knew the quality of the dresses or how many pieces we’d be receiving,” Ms. Einiger said. “But when our volunteers, Ilene Wechter and Marilynn and Joel Friedman, went to Essex County this summer to meet Anne Cohen, they filled two carloads of gowns.” She describes the group’s exuberance when they began to take the gowns out to hang up in the store.
“I could never have imagined how magnificent this merchandise was,” she said. “We all just went crazy. These were gowns that could be worn to a Met gala.”
Anne Cohen donated more than 75 gowns from Bernstein’s Fashions to the thrift shop. “When the volunteers came down to pick up the merchandise I had, I asked them what they wanted,” Ms. Cohen said. “We’ll take it all,” they told her. “So I gave it all to them!”
The floor-length gowns ranged in size from 4 to 16. “Many still had tags on them, and some retailed at over $4,000,” Ms. Einiger said. “And we never thought we’d be getting this many.
“The thrift shop has to be deliberate in our pricing,” she added. “In this community, many of our customers don’t have an overabundance of money to spend.”
All profit from the store goes to the National Council of Jewish Women. “The money goes to the community services we support in our Bergen County section and in Israel,” Ms. Einiger said.
Ms. Cohen feels strongly that “once in her life, every woman should have the opportunity to look in the mirror and feel beautiful.” Her dresses help women feel that way.
To learn more about National Council of Jewish Women’s thrift shop, go to www.ncjwbcs.org.
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