Judith Leiber (1921-2018) was a Hungarian-American fashion designer and businesswoman. She is most famous for her inventive handbags bejeweled with crystals in conversation starting forms such as a beehive, teddy bear, pancake stack, schnauzer dog, and even a hamburger. Her work can be found in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Leiber originally studied chemistry for the cosmetics industry at King's College London. She returned to Hungary where her handbag passion led her to obtain a trainee position at a handbag company. She learned to cut and mold leather, make patterns, frame and stitch bags. She became the first woman to join the Hungarian Handbag Guild in Budapest. She later moved to New York City and got hands on education working as a pattern maker and foreman for multiple handbag companies until she began her own company.
Leiber has been quoted as saying “I never really made complicated or intricate drawings. I went straight to the cutting table with my ideas and created a pattern for a bag I was designing.”
Her popular handbags were born out of a mistake. Having worked with different materials such as fabrics, leathers and metals. Leiber sought out on a journey to make an all-metal bag. On her first attempt, the metal bag was not what she expected. The sample came in and, in her words, she said, “it looked awful”. The bottom was greenish, so she decided to fix it by applying crystal rhinestones to cover the discoloration. The bag turned out to be a huge success and history was made.
Her handbags have become a status symbol for many women. Almost every Presidential First Lady has been the owner of at least one Judith Leiber bag including Jacqueline Kennedy and Hillary Clinton. Her bags are often referred to as objects of art and have become collectibles for many including Beverly Sills, former chair of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, who owned seventy bags. Plus, Bernice Norman, a Louisiana philanthropist, who owned close to three hundred bags.
After only six years in business, she received the Swarovski Great Designer award for artistic use of the company’s crystals. In 1973, she was also the first in her field to win the Coty American Fashion Critics Award. In 1994, she accepted the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America, wearing a striking blue evening gown and one of her minaudières around her neck as a necklace pendant.
If you are interested in learning about more fashion heroes, then check out the chapter on Fashion Icons in Little Fashion University: The Kid’s Guide.
