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                      BERNARD CHAUS, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES
                                                                   EXHIBIT 31.1
                           SECTION 302 CERTIFICATIONS

I, Josephine Chaus, the Chairwoman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of
Bernard Chaus, Inc., certify that:

     1.   I have reviewed this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q of Bernard Chaus,
          Inc. (the "Company") for the three months ended September 30, 2003
          (this "Report");

     2.   Based on my knowledge, this Report does not contain any untrue
          statement of a material fact or omit to state a material fact
          necessary in order to make the statements made, in light of the
          circumstances under which such statements were made, not misleading
          with respect to the period covered by this Report;

     3.   Based on my knowledge, the consolidated financial statements, and
          other financial information included in this Report, fairly present in
          all material respects the financial condition and results of
          operations and cash flows of the Company as of, and for, the periods
          presented in this Report;

     4.   The Company's other certifying officers and I are responsible for
          establishing and maintaining disclosure controls and procedures (as
          defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e)) for the Company
          and we have:

          (a)  designed such disclosure controls and procedures, or caused such
               disclosure controls and procedures to be designed under our
               supervision, to ensure that material information relating to the
               Company, including its consolidated subsidiaries, is made known
               to us by others within those entities, particularly during the
               period in which this Report is being prepared;

          (b)  evaluated the effectiveness of the Company's disclosure controls
               and procedures and presented in this Report our conclusions about
               the effectiveness of the disclosure controls and procedures, as
               of the end of the period covered by this Report based on such
               evaluation; and

          (c)  disclosed in this Report any change in the Company's internal
               control over financial reporting that occurred during the
               Company's most recent fiscal quarter that has materially
               affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, the
               Company's internal control over financial reporting; and;

     5.   The Company's other certifying officers and I have disclosed, based on
          our most recent evaluation of internal control over financial
          reporting, to the Company's auditors and the audit committee of the
          Company's board of directors (or persons performing the equivalent
          functions):

          (a)  all significant deficiencies and material weaknesses in the
               design or operation of internal control over financial reporting
               which are reasonably likely to adversely affect the Company's
               ability to record, process, summarize, and report financial
               information; and

     6.   any fraud, whether or not material, that involves management or other
          employees who have a significant role in the Company's internal
          control over financial reporting.

November 12, 2003

                             /s/ Josephine Chaus
                             ---------------------------------------------------
                             Josephine Chaus
                             Chairwoman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer


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