Here is a darling pair of classic T-Strap pumps in black suede designed by Beth Levine for Herbert Levine shoes ~ circa 1970. This design was called Tea~for~Two, all her styles were given names ~ for fun and identification purposes.
Tea~for~Two T~Strap Pump by Beth Levine for Herbert Levine Shoes ~ Circa 1970
She produced this one for Little Shop Shoes as is printed in gold on the insole and it was sold at Nordstrom Best in Seattle, WA., where it was bought by one of my own family members! The shoes were too narrow for her, or any of the rest of us who followed, so they were never worn, just carefully saved, in their iconic red box neatly stored away! They are size 7.5 N and we all have real medium width feet.
Look Inside~ It says Little Shop Shoes!
However, Beth Levine was a personal friend, and we all knew she was going to be really famous! She has already won several Coty Fashion Awards. So it was logical for us to keep her shoes! And we were right! A couple of years ago a museum show was mounted in her honor which I attended in Bellevue, WA. And a book, Beth Levine Shoes by Helene Verin was published around the same time to commemorate her work and the company she and her husband Herbert Levine owned. Of course we attended this and it was fascinating! If you love shoes, I recommend the book and the show if you ever get the chance to see it.
Little Shop Shoes were meant to be fashion forward for the younger woman. While the Herbert Levine Label shoes were more sophisticated. In fact as sophisticated as you could get! Here is an example, also in my personal collection, of a beautiful red patent Herbert Levine salon shoe purchased at Nieman Marcus. I have shown this pair on this blog before, but I wanted to put them together today.
Red Patent Pump with Grosgrain Ribbon Bow by Herbert Levine Shoes
Beth Levine designed all the shoes, but they named the company Herbert Levine Shoes because, at that time, all the other shoe designers were men. She had worked for most of them picking up her skills by osmosis, first as a shoe model and later as a designer. The whole story can be found in the book above.
What isn’t in the book is the story of Beth and Herbert Levine and me! I met them when I went to New York City to dance with the City Center Robert Joffrey Ballet. Their daughter was a student at the Joffrey Ballet School and we became friends. She introduced me to her father, the famous Herbert Levine, but I didn’t really know how famous he was! He just seemed really nice. Father and daughter took me home to meet Beth Levine and we all ended up going out to dinner. We got on famously. They were very interested in the arts and artists and, after a few get togethers they ended up inviting me to move into their Greenwich Village Apartment. Thus, I ended up living with them for several months, getting to know them and many of their friends and getting a first hand education from them on what made good shoes good shoes. Beth was high energy and extremely funny. She was also under a tremendous amount of personal pressure with the responsibilities of running her company and constantly coming up with new ideas and designs. I could see that the life of a famous shoe designer was not 100% glamor! It was a lot of really hard work. They were under an immense amount of pressure to come up with new ideas and stay on the cutting edge. She worked all the time. She seemed very tired a lot of the time.
Herbert Levine was a wonderful flamboyant man who wore a dramatic burgundy long cape overcoat as a trademark and literally swash buckled in it. He was very fashionable. He liked the theater and actors and always was attending plays. It is no wonder that their daughter eventually decided to become an actress. She is Anna Levine Thompson and has had a long and successful acting career in New York City in theater and films.
Photos by Fredric Lerhman.
Shoes from The Lady Violette Shoe Collection
Tags: Art & About, Families, Friendship, Shoes, The Lady Violette Shoe Collection, Vintage Shoes
Great backstory on Beth Levine and her husband (before Manolo Blahnik, there was Beth Levine!). So cool that you knew them personally. The book on Beth Levine’s shoes that you link to looks terrific, too. Great cover and illustrations.
Yes, the book is very good. It is written by a student of Beth Levine who is a keeper of the flame now of her work and designs. The author is Helen Verin and she is a shoe designer and teaches in New York City at FIT.
The black suede T-straps are perfect for dancing, especially practice; the squared-off toe and wider heel = greater comfort and stability. I bought a pair of dance shoes very similar to these two years ago (but in a wider width) and they’ve served me very well. An interesting glimpse into the life of a shoe designer, too. I just looked up more on Beth Levine and found that she introduced the stiletto heel and much more to the American market. No wonder she seemed tired at times, though she clearly enjoyed the challenge!
You are right! T-straps are perfect for dancing because the straps keep the shes properly positioned on the foot! I will be showing many more variations on them in the near future. Classic shoes!