skirts. Her collections often had dramatic and varied patterns that were inspired by and dominated by flowers, which she felt had saved her life during the Nazi occupation. Gottlieb said she took her inspiration from the light and contrasting colors of Israel: "the turquoise of the Mediterranean, the golden yellow of the desert sand, the blue of the Sea of Galilee, the pink of Jerusalem stone, and the many shades of green of the Galilee." In 1973, when the Yom Kippur War broke out, Gottlieb canceled a foreign tour, took over operations at Gottex, and arranged fashion shows for front-line soldiers. By 1984, Gottex had sales of $40 million ($ in current dollar terms), and was the leading exporter of fashion swimwear to the United States, and had two-thirds of the Israeli swimwear market. Among those who wore the company's bathing suits were Diana, Princess of Wales, Spain's Queen Sofia, Elizabeth Taylor, Brooke Shields and Nancy Kissinger. In 1991, almost half of the company's $60 million business was in the United States. Lev Leviev, the owner of the Africa-Israel Group, acquired Gottex in 1997. After about a year heading the design team, Gottlieb left the company. Once her non-compete agreement with Gottex expired, at the age of 85 she founded a new swimwear design company, under her own name. See also Israeli fashion Women of Israel References 1918 births 2012 deaths Hungarian emigrants to Israel Hungarian fashion designers Hungarian Jews Hungarian people of World War II Israeli women chief executive officers Gottlieb Israeli people of Hungarian-Jewish descent 20th-century Israeli businesswomen 20th-century Israeli businesspeople Holocaust survivors Jewish fashion designers People from Sajószentpéter Hungarian women fashion designers Israeli women fashion designers