It’s incredibly easy to talk with Ronnie Rothstein. While I imagined this would be the case from listening to his other interviews and watching him on Say Yes to the Dress, I still found myself nervous. This was, after all, one of the owners of Kleinfeld, the biggest and most famous bridal salon in the world.
But my fears soon subsided when Ronnie’s distinct and familiar voice came through the phone, “I’m sitting on Lexington Avenue, watching people cross the street on a red light. Where are you sitting right now?” As I was sitting at my desk in Orange County, CA, with my laptop, pen, and paper at the ready, it occurred to me: this is why Ronnie is successful. The image of him strolling the sales floor speaking with brides came back to me, and I felt like I was trying on a gown. I was about to get the Kleinfeld experience sans salon, and it was one I will never forget.
Before the questions began, Ronnie passed some valuable information on to me: For those of you who don’t already know, Say Yes to the Dress will now be airing on Fridays at 10 pm as it did last season, as opposed to its Tuesday time slot. While ordinary changes like this happen in entertainment often, this particular change actually had an effect on some of Ronnie’s customers, like one family featured Friday, August 8th. Here’s what Ronnie had to say: “A family named Michaels from Boca Raton, Florida came into the store because they were going to be renewing their vows. The mother of the family had just lost her mother, and was depressed for a year and a half, so she and her husband decided to renew their vows as a way to cheer up. So Tuesday night, they had invited 200 people to a party to watch the show, and about four or five hours before, they were told the show wasn’t going to air. They were stuck with $5,000 worth of food. So they were calling me to make sure that the show would be on Friday. Their two sons were at camp in Maine, and at the camp, they rented a large screen TV so they could watch the show, and they were held over until Friday as well. I thought to myself, ‘So if the show doesn’t air Friday, these two kids will kill me, and I will never be able to show my face in Maine!’ As the owner of a bridal salon, this is what we go through. But really, we are happy to be back on Fridays at 10.”
And now for the good stuff ...
Brides Television: What made you want to purchase Kleinfeld in 1999?
Ronnie Rothstein: Mara and I have been together for 24 years. She ran Saks women’s apparel for over 20 years. After retiring, she began consulting. She was called in to consult with some people from a company based in Boston who had purchased Kleinfeld. At the time, Kleinfeld was in Brooklyn. So [Mara] went out to Brooklyn for a couple of months – and she had bridal under her belt from her time at Saks. She came home after two months and said, “We should buy Kleinfeld.” They had been in business since 1941, and she said the staff was from heaven. It was better than anything – we should buy it and move it to the city, because the neighborhood it was in wasn’t right. It might be interesting for the latter part of life to own a business; it would be Mara’s own thing, instead of working for a major conglomerate. I started making calls, one of which was to Wayne Rogers, and found out that everyone had heard of Kleinfeld. [Wayne’s] wife, who had produced Good Morning America, even told him, “Wayne, everybody goes to Kleinfeld.” So Wayne flew in from Beverly Hills to meet everyone. It took one year to negotiate, but we bought Kleinfeld on July 9, 1999. It has been upwards and onwards ever since. It’s been exciting, rewarding, and not what I expected. There were 150 staff members, and it grew to 225. Mara and I hired every person personally.
BTV: Do you have a favorite wedding dress or bride story?
R.R.: I have a phenomenal story you won’t ever forget. About three years ago, when we moved to the city, we got a call from a bride. It happened to be Gina; she said “Mr. Rothstein, I have an appointment. I am coming with all my best friends, family, and two grandmothers who are helping to pay for half the wedding and the dress. I am coming with 14 people, but I have a special request. I have been to the store, and I know when I am working with a consultant, they have big rooms, and I don’t want to get undressed in front of all of my family.” I asked why, and she said “I have piercings and tattoos, and my family is old-fashioned. If they saw me undressed, it would be uncomfortable for my grandmothers who are old-fashioned, Catholic, and wonderful. So, can I have the 14 people wait outside in the grand salon while I change?” I got my special consultant Rita, who was aware of everything. It started out beautifully. Rita put dresses on Gina; the 14 people made notes as she walked around. After about 45 minutes, what we were not aware of – nor was Gina – was that they [the family] had bought a diamond necklace for her to wear on her wedding day, and they were going to put it on her while she was trying dresses on. After the sixth or seventh dress, she was about to try on another dress – with the big mirror in front of her, showing everything. The grandmothers walked in to put the necklace on her, and they saw her tattoo above her butt that said, “This a** belongs to” ... and then had the fiancé’s name, along with tattoos on her bosom. The screaming that came from that room was so bad that we thought someone had gotten hurt. The grandmothers freaked out – they screamed, called her a tramp. It was terrible. They ran out and yelled at her mother, asking, “How are you raising her?” And the mother didn’t know anything about it. For two hours, the grandmothers were negotiating, crying, going berserk. They were going to boycott the wedding; they were in their late 70s and were very conservative. After two hours of negotiating with the mother, aunt, and grandmothers, Gina agreed she would remove her tattoos and piercings. They all agreed if she did so, the grandmothers would still help pay for the wedding. When Mara got an award from Susan Lucci for the Little Flower Foundation and made a speech, she told this story. Everyone was asking us about bridezillas and grandma-zillas ... but after hearing this story, everyone e-mailed us and said it was like nothing they’ve ever heard. Rita was actually invited to the wedding. Gina wore a glow-in-the-dark sort of dress with beading; she picked a dress that went with the necklace. She later gave us a beautiful call saying that we had saved her relationship with her grandmothers.
