Judith Leiber

Judith Leiber (born Judit Pető; January 11, 1921 – April 28, 2018)[1] was a Hungarian-American fashion designer and businesswoman.

Life and career

Leiber was born Judit Pető in 1921 in Budapest, Hungary, to Helene, a Vienna-born homemaker, and Emil, a commodities broker, both of Hungarian-Jewish descent. She also had one sister named Eva.[2] Leiber was sent to King's College London in 1938 by her family to study chemistry for the cosmetics industry, in part since her father thought she would be safer in London in the case of a war.[3]

She returned to Hungary before World War II, where thanks to family connections[3] she obtained a traineeship at a handbag company, where she learned to cut and mold leather, make patterns, frame and stitch bags. She was the first woman graduated to master craftswoman, becoming the first woman to join the Hungarian Handbag Guild in Budapest.

Fashion career

After working as a handbag designer for other companies, Leiber founded her own business in 1963. She is known for her crystal minaudières, evening purses made of a metal shell often encrusted with Swarovski crystals, plated with silver or gold and with various forms, such as baby pigs, slices of watermelon, cupcakes, peacocks, penguins, and snakes.[4] Sold at exclusive boutiques around the world, her purses may cost up to several thousand dollars and have become a status symbol for many women, including several Presidential First Ladies to whom she has given them as a present, from Mamie Eisenhower to Barbara Bush and Hillary Clinton. Animals are a recurring theme in her designs, and often ornament the most expensive purses of the collection, with prices on some animal-shaped minaudières exceeding US$7,000. Some wealthy women collect them; Bernice Norman, an arts patron in New Orleans, owns close to 300 of the Leiber bags.[4]

In 1994, Leiber received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Council of Fashion Designers. She retired in 1998. In September 2008, she was rated the most prestigious luxury handbag brand for the second year running by the New York-based Luxury Institute.[5] In 2010, Leiber received a Visionary Woman Award from Moore College of Art & Design. Examples of 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. The Taubman Museum of Art in Roanoke, Virginia, has had a gallery of her work on display since it opened in 2008.

The Leibers bought property in Springs, New York in 1956 and it became their primary residence[6] in 2011.[7] In 2005 they opened the Leiber Museum across the street from their home to display the bags as well as paintings by Gerson Leiber.[8] The Leibers sought to buy back an example of all of the purses to be displayed at the museum.[9] The museum also displays various awards including the 1973 Coty Award.

birth date	January 11, 1921
death date	April 28, 2018
birth place	Budapest, Kingdom of Hungary
death place	Springs, New York, U.S.
birth name	Judit Pető
occupation	Founder of Judith Leiber
spouse	Gerson Leiber (m. 1946-2018)
website	JudithLeiber.com

Life and career

Fashion career

Stores

Death

External links

References