Maurice Levin (January 6, 1926 – August 30, 2007) was an American fashion designer, working in both men's and women's fashion in the 1950s through 1970s. He worked as a designer for

Jantzen Jantzen is a brand of swimwear that was established in 1916 and first appeared in the city of Portland, Oregon, United States. The brand name later replaced the name of the parent company that manufactured the branded products. The brand feature ...

, Alex Colman of California,

American Cyanamid American Cyanamid Company was a leading American conglomerate which became one of the nation's top 100 manufacturing companies during the 1970s and 1980s, according to the Fortune 500 listings at the time. It started in fertilizer, but added ...

, and Catalina.

About

Maurice Levin was born in 1926 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, New York. He graduated in Costume Design from

Traphagen School of Fashion Traphagen School of Fashion was an art and design school in operation from 1923 to 1991, and was located at 1680 Broadway in New York City. The school was founded and directed by Ethel Traphagen Leigh (1883–1963) with a focus on the foundational ...

in 1949. After graduation Levin moved to Los Angeles to attend

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California S ...

(UCLA) majoring in Social Science with curriculum in Apparel Design. In the 1950s he worked for the

swimwear brand, and popularized the trend of the color pink worn on men. He won two Caswell-Massey awards for design. His work is in various public museum collections including

Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) is a contemporary art museum with two locations in greater Los Angeles, California. The main branch is located on Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, near the Walt Disney Concert Hall. MOCA's ori ...

(LACMA), among others. Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising Museum's Special Collections has a Maurice Levin Archive.

References

{{Fashion-bio-stub 1926 births 2007 deaths Traphagen School of Fashion alumni University of California, Los Angeles alumni American fashion designers People from Los Angeles