Herbert Levine (company)


Herbert Levine is an American luxury shoe label founded in 1948 by Herbert Levine and his wife Beth.

Label history

Background

The Herbert Levine label was named after former-journalist Herbert. His wife, Beth, was the primary shoe designer of the label. She designed the footwear while Herbert handled the factory management, sales and marketing.

The company

Herbert Levine, Inc. established its first factory on 31 West 31st Street in New York on January 1949. The factory started with a production of 400 pair of shoes a week to reach 200 employees producing 5,000 pair of shoes a week in 1954. In 1975, Herbert Levine, Inc. was still making 900 pair of shoes a day.
Herbert Levine shoes were distributed in numerous boutiques and high-end department stores across the United States and Canada including Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Joseph and Bonwit Teller. Herbert Levines were also the first American shoes to be carried overseas by retailers such as Galeries Lafayette in Paris and Harrods in London.
In the 1950s, Herbert Levine advertisements were drawn by famous New York illustrator Saul Steinberg and were regularly published in The New Yorker and in Harper's Bazaar.
Closed in 1975, the label was shortly revived in 2008 by Dennis Comeau and is today owned by Luvanis, an investment holding company.

The shoes

The Herbert Levine label gained media notoriety for outlandish designs: gilded wood platforms, slippers with newspaper, money, or candy-wrapper covered fabrics, Astroturf insoles, and shoes that were glued onto the wearer's nylon stockings.
Herbert Levine’s greatest influence however was re-introducing boots to women's fashion in the 1960s and the popularization of the shoe style known as mules.

Innovations

Fashion innovations introduced under the Herbert Levine label include:

First Ladies

The house of Herbert Levine served the United States First Ladies Jackie Kennedy, Mamie Eisenhower, Lady Bird Johnson and Patricia Nixon in the 1960s and early 1970s.
Herbert Levine made black velvet knee-high boots for Mamie Eisenhower as well as most of her pumps. For Jackie Kennedy, Herbert Levine custom-made a pair of thigh-high boots in burlap with a stacked heel, as well as many of the flats that became a signature element of the Jackie Kennedy style.

Stars and socialites

In addition to the popularity of the label with Presidents' wives, Herbert Levine shoes were also a nonstop favorite of Broadway stars, movie stars and socialites. Most famous clients included Barbra Streisand, Marlene Dietrich, Marilyn Monroe, Dinah Shore, Janis Paige, Jane Fonda, Joanne Woodward, Joan Crawford, Lauren Bacall, Barbara Walters, Julie Andrews, Rita Hayworth, Peggy Lee, Cyd Charisse, Joan Collins, Cher, Linda Evans, Babe Paley, Rosemary Clooney, Betty Grable, Gladys Knight, Natalie Wood, Debbie Reynolds, Arlene Francis, Phyllis Diller, Helen Hayes, Chita Rivera, Joan Sutherland, Gwen Verdon, Liv Ullmann, Agnes de Mille, Carol Channing, Ali MacGraw, Barbara Hale, and Angela Lansbury.
Marilyn Monroe wore Herbert Levine shoes both in her private and public life. Visiting Bement on August 9, 1955, Marilyn wore a pair of Herbert Levine's Spring-o-Lators, immortalized by many pictures, notably the series taken by photojournalist Eve Arnold. In 1957, Marilyn purchased Herbert Levine red stilettos from Vogue shop in Montreal; those shoes are now part of the Bata Shoe Museum collection in Toronto.
Marlene Dietrich ordered many custom pairs of the so-called "Gigi Stocking Shoes" and inspired the "Marlene Boot" line of the label, named for her famous legs.
Joan Crawford was a fan of Herbert Levine's Cinderella shoes. She had those Vinylite shoes custom made by Herbert Levine because "she loved to see her feet."

Famous appearances

In 1954, Herbert and Beth Levine were awarded a Neiman Marcus Fashion Award for their shoe designs.
In 1967, a Coty Special Fashion Critics Award was voted to Beth and Herbert Levine for “the look of the leg.” In 1973, Beth and Herbert Levine received a second Coty Award; to this day they remain the only shoe designers ever to win it twice.
Manolo Blahnik: "Beth Levine is without a doubt the most influential American shoe designer of the 20th century. She is to shoes what Eames is to furniture."
Christian Louboutin: "Beth Levine was an influential free spirit. There is nothing that I like more than seeing a creation coming from pure fun and pleasure, and this is always the case with Levine's refreshing work. God bless her for that!"

Museums and Retrospectives

Herbert Levine in Museums

Herbert Levine shoes are collected by more than 20 museums around the world including the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto, and the Kyoto Costume Institute in Japan.

Retrospectives on Beth and Herbert Levine