"[1] Born in Bern, Switzerland, Bartsch left her family as a teenager and moved to London in the late 1960s, where she became an intimate of such celebrities as Jimmy Page and Malcolm McLaren.
After moving to New York City in the early 1980s, she opened a clothing boutique in SoHo that gave exposure to new British names, designers and labels, including Vivienne Westwood, Leigh Bowery, BodyMap, John Galliano, and milliner Stephen Jones.
[2] She also helped launch the careers of young American designers Alpana Bawa and Michael Leva, and was a precursor and influence upon the Club Kids movement of the time.
By the late 1980s, the American economy was slowing, and "edgy" clothing was becoming harder to sell; Bartsch began organizing weekly parties at prominent New York nightclubs, such as Savage, Bentley's, and, finally, the Copacabana.
[citation needed] Bartsch took part in philanthropic work, running annual holiday toy-drives with her partner, David Barton, whom she married in 1995 (div.