Pamela Branstetter, Fashion and P.R. Executive, Dies at 70

Pamela Branstetter, a longtime fashion executive and partner in public relations firm Harrington Branstetter Communications, died Tuesday at her home in Jupiter, Fla. She was 70 years old. The cause was a heart attack, according to her former business partner, Pat Harrington. Born in Madison, Wisc., Branstetter graduated from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, where she met Harrington. After college, where Branstetter was an English major, she received a two-year degree in fashion merchandising from the Fashion Institute of Technology. She then headed to Los Angeles where she worked at the Right Bank Clothing Co., owned by Donald Pliner, which was a hip women’s shop. At the time, Harrington was working at the Polo shop in Beverly Hills, and through her, Branstetter met Ralph Lauren. Lauren hired her, and she held numerous positions there from 1974 to 1984, including women’s collection buyer for the first 11 freestanding Polo Ralph Lauren shops in the U.S., Canada and London. She also worked closely with Lauren, the architects and contractors on merchandise allocation for men’s, women’s and all product licensees and supervised in-house merchandising, recruiting, training and operational activities of specific locations. An opportunity arose to work with Karl Lagerfeld, and Branstetter made the move, becoming vice

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