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 Herbert Levine label, bearing the name of her husband, Herbert Levine, Beth was the best-known American women's shoe designer from the 1950s to the early 1970s, and was called "America's First Lady of Shoe Design" until her death in 2006.

Beginnings

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 The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure respect for all human beings, and ...

volunteer during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

Design career

Beth met Herbert Levine when she applied for a job designing shoes for another shoe manufacturer in 1944, and married him three months later. In 1948, they founded together the Herbert Levine label. Beth Levine's greatest influence is considered to be the re-introduction of boots to women's

fashion Fashion is a form of self-expression and autonomy at a particular period and place and in a specific context, of clothing, footwear, lifestyle, accessories, makeup, hairstyle, and body posture. The term implies a look defined by the fashion i ...

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' "These Boots Are Made for Walkin' is a hit song written by Lee Hazlewood and recorded by American singer Nancy Sinatra. It charted on January 22, 1966, and reached No.1 in the United States ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and in the UK Singles Chart. Su ...

", demand for fashion boots leaped so much that

Saks Fifth Avenue Saks Fifth Avenue (originally Saks & Company; colloquially Saks) is an American luxury department store chain headquartered in New York City and founded by Andrew Saks. The original store opened in the F Street shopping district of Washington ...

opened a special section its shoe department called "Beth's Bootery". Levine was hired in 1965, along with famed couturier

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and designer

Alexander Girard Alexander Girard (May 24, 1907 – December 31, 1993), affectionately known as Sandro, was an architect, interior designer, furniture designer, industrial designer, and a textile designer. Early life He was born in New York City to an America ...

, to help overhaul a new look and style for Braniff International Airways. The campaign, developed by Jack Tinker and Partner's

Mary Wells Lawrence Mary Wells Lawrence (born Mary Georgene Berg on May 25, 1928) is an American retired advertising executive. She was the founding president of Wells, Rich, Greene, an advertising agency known for its creative work. Lawrence was the first female ...

, was dubbed The End Of The Plain Plane, and was a revolutionary airline overhaul, which had never been attempted. Levine designed the unique shoes that complemented the Pucci uniform designs.

Innovations

Fashion innovations introduced by Beth Levine for the Herbert Levine label include boots as Haute Couture, "Spring-o-lator" mules (where an

elastic Elastic is a word often used to describe or identify certain types of elastomer, elastic used in garments or stretchable fabrics. Elastic may also refer to: Alternative name * Rubber band, ring-shaped band of rubber used to hold objects togeth ...

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), stocking boots (pantyhose with heels attached, as well as boots made from materials like vinyl and acrylic) and clear plastic shoes. Beth was an early feminist in the fashion industry.

Awards

Beth Levine was awarded the Coty Award in 1967 for design innovation.

Collections

Beth's designs are included in the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

Death

Beth Levine died in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from transformed, malign ...

on September 20, 2006, aged 91, survived by a daughter, Anna Thomson-Wilson, also of Manhattan, and grandsons H Hugo Thomson and William Davidson Thomson 3rd.

References

External links

Beth Levine Shoes historical website
*

Braniff Flying Colors historical page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Levine, Beth 1914 births 2006 deaths American fashion businesspeople American fashion designers American women fashion designers American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent Deaths from lung cancer People from Manhattan People from Patchogue, New York Shoe designers 20th-century American women 20th-century American people 21st-century American women