Meet Ernestine

HERE’S ME!

I was born on the eastern end of Long Island NY, grew up in a small town called Mastic Beach, Jewish mom, Italian dad and realized as soon as I could put two sentences together that I wanted to move to the city that never sleeps, that city being New York City.

Fashion has been in my blood since I was a kid. I devoured all of the usual “girl” magazines each month which of course included Teen, Seventeen, Glamour and Mademoiselle. I saved each issue and refused to discard them to the point where my dad had to build a giant bookcase in my room to house all of these precious fashion bibles. My dream was to live where these magazines were created every 30 days. I wanted to work in the heart of the famous Garment Center, aka 7th Avenue, where fashion walks, talks and comes alive thanks to the many men who push rolling racks in the street from the crack of dawn through the wee hours of the night.

I launched my career at Izod Lacoste (7th Ave and 36th Street), this was back when alligator shirts ruled and the preppie look was well… the look!

My boss oversaw the entire accessory division and he taught me how to market and merchandise a line, as well as the key to knowing what will sell and what will tank.

After working at Izod for 5 years, I decided it was time to move on and ended up working for Kayser Roth Hosiery. The woman I worked for designed Calvin Klein, Leggs, (you know the sheer hosiery in the egg) and a few other top brands. I soon learned how to create a hosiery line and moved onto Hampshire Hosiery, where I was the actual designer, bodywear and lingerie were also my domain.

I worked on the Charles Jourdan brand and many other private label brands, which is another name for department stores' own lines, like Macy’s, Bloomingdales, Saks and every other big-name store you can think of.

After my hosiery life, I took a position with Bally Of Switzerland, the footwear and accessories company. 

I was the public relations director for 10 years and I worked with every men’s and women’s fashion publications that existed, yep the same mags that I read each month as a teen and which were still sitting in my parents' house and upstairs in my bedrooms bookcase. 

And when Bally opened a new shop which was quite often, I was responsible for producing the blowout bash that accompanied it. The stores were in the best locations and cities around the country and the parties were A-plus all the way. I also traveled endlessly to Switzerland since the company was based there, and Italy where I opened a showroom in Milan.

Along the way I met oodles of interesting, famous and notable folks from all walks of life, including entertainment, fashion, literary, culinary, theatre, art, music, sports, and pop culture, let’s just say they were the “who’s who” that you only read about in Page Six. 

I racked up tons of outrageous stories, the hard to believe kind, truth be told, they made my hair stand on end and I was there, I guarantee yours would too!

After Bally I began my public relations career which lasted over 25 years. 

I worked for Edelman PR (the largest independently owned agency in the world), then hopped over to Weber Shandwick PR (the largest company-owned agency in the world) both located in NYC, I was considered the media guru, my specialty being broadcast. 

During my Weber days I met Skip at his ESPN show "Cold Pizza”, we clicked and two weeks later had our first date and have been together ever since, going on 15 years!

When Skip finally made the decision to leave ESPN after 13 years for Fox Sports 1, we decided to get married. Not in the over the top kind of wedding most people dream of, ours, of course, was unique and special and so “our way”...against the grain. Our good friend is a judge in NYC so we hopped in a cab, went down to the city hall and told no one about our afternoon. It fit us to a T, not for everyone but you know what they say, one size does not fit all!

I was still working full time for Weber in LA when I decided to write my best selling book Balls: How To Keep Your Relationship Alive When You Live With A Sports Obsessed Guy. 

Not long after I finished the book I decided it was time for me to start a new chapter in my life, my focus was the book and now….my blog! The book became a best-seller after 3 hours and I had the most fun hitting the media circuit to promote it, but this time I was the guest being booked on the talk shows, not me booking a client! 

Not to say I am putting pr in the rearview mirror for good, I still do projects, but work only on the ones I believe in, and definitely not for a large company anymore, I work for me! 

So today Skip, Hazel and I live in LA. I have no clue where life will take us, but what I do know is that I am up for the challenge.

Hope you come along with me on this journey!!