Mindy’s father, Donald Waldman, worked nights for Candy Brand Tomatoes in St. Albans, Queens; he and her mother had tried unsuccessfully for a dozen years to have a baby on their own and hadn’t been able to afford adoption until one night his boss gave him a check earmarked for that purpose. Told this story for as long as she could remember, their daughter developed a strong sense of filial obligation. She went to Manhattanville College a year early, transferring to George Washington University as a senior, and majored in English literature and philosophy with plans to become a lawyer.

A sudden, if unfocused, epiphany came after a summer working as receptionist and occasional fit model for the company that made Nik Nik, the brightly patterned polyester shirts popular during the disco years. She broke an engagement to her high-school boyfriend and telephoned her parents.

“I’m moving to New York,” she announced, to horrified silence.

Her graduation was in 1977, when the city was dangerous and dirty. She found an assistant job at another shirt company, Manhattan Industries, which paid $15,600 a year, and moved into a 330-square-foot studio apartment in an elevator building on First Avenue between 73rd and 74th Streets. The long bus ride to the west side cost 50 cents. “I’d be scrounging, looking for the quarter,” said Ms. Grossman, who is currently renovating a $5.65 million condo at United Nations Plaza.

She moonlighted one winter as a server at Cachaca, a nightclub on 62nd Street above the better-known discothèque Hippopotamus, to make extra cash for the holidays. “You know what? It was fabulous,” she said.

Her career in shirts progressed to the men’s wear brand Enro. One day, the fashion designer Jeffrey Banks arrived there for a meeting and spotted Mindy Waldman handling a busy front desk. “I watched this young woman — 21, 22 years of age — dealing with irate salespeople and messengers, doing it so calmly and efficiently — I was just so captivated by her,” he said in a phone interview. She would eventually become his vice president of sales, part of a rare convergence of talent that included the then-unknown designers John Varvatos and Isaac Mizrahi.

Later, she worked for Willi Smith, a lover of bright color who collaborated with artists like Barbara Kruger and Keith Haring. “Literally the first designer to really articulate that fashions should come from the street up not the top down,” Ms. Grossman said. “To bring democratization to fashion, before Target ever thought of it.”