Beth Levine
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Beth Levine (December 31, 1914 - September 20, 2006) was an American fashion designer most known for her designs from the 1940s through the 1970s. Under the label of her husband Herbert Levine she was the best-known American women's shoe designer from the 1950s to the early 1970s, and is still referred to as "The first Lady of American Shoes Design" ([1]).
She was born as Elizabeth Katz in Patchogue, New York, the third of five children of Anna and Israel Katz, Lithuanian Jewish emigrants who operated a dairy farm. In the 1930s, she moved to Manhattan and found work as a shoe model, then worked her way up from a stylist to head designer for I. Miller. She served as a Red Cross volunteer during World War II.
She met Herbert Levine when she applied for a job designing shoes for another shoe manufacturer in 1944 and married him three months later. He was head of the firm, and this gave her designs the chance to come to center stage. They founded a new company under the name Herbert Levine in 1948. Beth Levine described their vision for the company by saying, "We wanted to create a shoemaking niche. We were making very pretty shoes that nobody needed, but everybody wanted" [2].
Although the company was named after publicity-savvy former-journalist Herbert, Beth Levine's name was still featured as the primary shoe designer for their products. She was given the Coty Award in 1967 for design innovation.
The Levines' greatest influence is considered to be the re-introduction of boots to women's fashion in the 1960s and the popularization of the shoe style known as mules. When Nancy Sinatra wore Levine boots in publicity shots for the 1960s hit song These Boots Are Made for Walkin' demand for fashion boots leaped so much that Saks Fifth Avenue opened a special section its shoe department called Beth’s Bootery.
Beth had recognized how much women admired the delicacy and femininity of high fashion shoes when she modeled them on her tiny (size 4B, European size 35) foot. She set out to create designs that would make women with average shoe sizes look more delicate and feminine in their shoes, and in the process changed the silhouettes of American fashion. She experimented with cutting away more and more of the leather to expose more and more of the foot, in the process creating shoes that were regarded as both sexier and more elegant than her predecessors.
In addition to three First Ladies, Jackie Kennedy, Lady Bird Johnson and Pat Nixon, the clientele also included movies stars such as Bette Davis and musicians like Barbra Streisand. Beth Levine worked to ensure that the wives of former presidential rivals John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon never ran into each other at her studio, and once frantically had to rearrange their fitting schedules when she discovered their visits would overlap [1]
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[edit] Innovations
Fashion innovations introduced by the Levines include:
- Boots as Haute Couture. Once highly stylish, boots lost favor in fashion after World War I as skirts became shorter and new manufacturing styles allowed shoes in a variety of styles to be made less expensively. In the mid-1960s the Levines added fashion boots to their line, starting a trend which remains current four decades later. Nancy Sinatra wore Levine boots for publicity shots and on stage during her period of fame for the song These Boots Are Made for Walkin'. Shirley Maclaine used them for dance numbers in Sweet Charity, and Raquel Welch wore them in her television variety specials.
- Spring-o-lator mules, where an elastic strip allowed the wearer to keep the shoes securely on while wearing stockings despite the lack of any straps at the side or back of the shoes. Levine got the idea while examining men's workboots, which sometimes featured an elastic liner to hold the foot in place while keeping the boot loose enough to be pulled on and off. Mules had been popular in France and Italy, but had never caught on in the United States for more than boudoir wear in satin or marabou feathers.
To overcome buyer skepticism upon their introduction, Levine ran across the lobby of a major New York hotel wearing the Spring-o-lator mules during a reception during a large apparel convention, proving dramatically that the elastic strips prevented the shoes from coming off. The design -- and the publicity stunt -- was so successful that the Levines spent significant amounts of both time and money the following two decades defending their patent on the concept.
- Through much of the 1950s and 1960s a wide range of shoe designers used Beth Levine's Spring-o-Lators in their shoe lines. Television characters such as Della Street (portrayed by Barbara Hale) in the popular Perry Mason series often made Spring-o-Lators part of their trademark wardrobe.
- Stocking boots (panty hose with heels attached, as well as boots made from materials like vinyl and acrylic.
- Clear plastic shoes, a style that inspired later designers including Charles Jourdan.
[edit] Legacy
Although the company closed in 1975, many Beth Levine designs remain on display in museums in Europe and North America.
[edit] Death
Beth Levine died of lung cancer on September 20, 2006, aged 91, in Manhattan. Predeceased by her husband, Levine was survived by her daughter, Anna Thomson-Wilson.
