[2][3] The family, who were Jewish, left Russia following pogroms and immigrated to the United States when Mildred was three months old, settling in Roxbury, Massachusetts.
[1] Following her marriage, she began teaching dance, art, and literature at the Florence Street Settlement House in Boston.
[7] The curriculum included "poise, proper walking, and good diction" and cultural visits to museums and ballet performances.
[1] She developed industry contacts by hosting a weekend luncheon and fashion show at a local hotel that attracted 500 to 600 attendees, and drew top-name designers to the city by inviting them to cocktail parties at her home.
[2] She lent her name and financial support to stage fashion shows benefiting the charities of the March of Dimes, UNICEF, DuPont, Celanese, United States Rubber Company, and others.
In 1985 she inaugurated a Saturday-afternoon luncheon and fashion show at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Boston which she ran until a few months before her death.
[9] Seven hundred well-wishers attended her 82nd birthday party; recorded tributes were sent by Calvin Klein, Bill Blass, and Oscar de la Renta.
She hosted a weekly radio show called "Youthful Loveliness" on WEEI in the late 1930s, and "Fashion As I See It" on WCRB in the 1960s and 1970s.
[1] In the 1950s she joined the CBS New England lecture circuit, speaking on the topic "Gracious Living", and also began appearing on television programs on fashion and beauty.
[2] In the 1980s she joined CBS' Good Day program as a fashion-show reporter and conducted interviews with leading designers in Paris, London, Rome, New York, and Boston, including Geoffrey Beene, Bill Blass, Pierre Cardin, Coco Chanel, Oscar de la Renta, Christian Dior, Norman Hartnell, Halston, Anne Klein, Ralph Lauren, Emilio Pucci, Simonetta, and Pauline Trigere.