Pioneer Designer Incorporated High Fashion and Practical Prices

Veteran fashion designer Sandra Chrysler, who started Sandy Chrysler Collections in the late 1990s, passed away on May 29 after a long battle with cancer. She was 69.

Chrysler, who was born in Minneapolis, started her fashion career in Los Angeles in 1956 by designing knitwear for Tres Gay, an apparel company located on the ninth floor of what is now The New Mart building in downtown Los Angeles.

She was one of the first California designers to create high-fashion clothes at a moderate price for the newly emerging youth market. She was also one of the first to design dresses using sweat material that previously had only been used in activewear.

One of her designs was displayed recently at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in an exhibition called “Bravehearts: Men in Skirts,” which closed Feb. 8.

At her ranch in Tehachapi, Calif., Chrysler developed a new career growing lilacs and sponsored an annual Mother’s Day festival that featured blooming lilacs and work from local artists.

She is survived by two daughters, Lisa Karlstein and Danielle Chrysler; her sister, Judith Cohen; her brother, Larry Chrysler; her grandson, Jeremy Day; and her longtime friend Pepi Kalman.

A memorial service will be held, but a date has not been determined. The family asks that donations be made to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. Contact the organization by visiting www.pancan.org or by calling (877) 272-6226. —Deborah Belgum