The creative and life story of this remarkable woman, strangely enough, has yet to be adapted into a film. However, it certainly deserves to be brought to the screen.
The fact that an unassuming Jewish girl from Hungary, Judith Leiber (1921-2018), built an empire of luxurious accessories with character in the United States is just one brushstroke in her portrait. Future screenwriters should pay special attention to this narrative thread.
About Her Work
How Judith Leiber chose the niche of minaudières for her self-expression remains a mystery. And there’s no one left to ask about it. Nevertheless, her choice was spot on.
When she began her journey in fashion design in the late 1930s, these intricately adorned handbags were already winning the hearts of fashionistas. But where did these exquisite accessories come from?
A minaudière (translated from French as “to flirt”) is a small evening bag that has surpassed the clutch in popularity. In the 1920s, this new accessory for upscale parties was invented by a man named Charles Arpels, the son of the owner and director of the Parisian jewelry house Van Cleef & Arpels. One day, he saw a socialite friend putting powder, lipstick, and a lighter into a tin from a cigarette pack. Monsieur Arpels was quite taken by this image. Soon after, thanks to his inspiration, minaudières began to emerge, and now nearly all fashion brands produce them. These bags are small boxes with a rigid frame, often on a chain and with fixed compartments.
Minaudière users happily packed them with all the essentials—lipstick, powder, a lighter, and so on (nowadays, the list of must-have items has expanded to include phones, reading glasses, and keys). Often, these bags were adorned with mirrors and built-in clocks. Minaudières were sometimes attached to bracelets and frequently embellished with precious stones, rhinestones, sequins, and compositions made from noble metals. Some bags even featured striking detachable clasps that could double as brooches.
But when it comes to extraordinary minaudières, our heroine Judith Leiber is the true artist behind them. They dazzled with a variety of ideas and were genuine works of art that older women passed down to their younger relatives. Over the years, the unparalleled minaudières designed by Leiber were recognized by actresses Greta Garbo and Liz Taylor, First Ladies of the United States Mamie Eisenhower, Barbara Bush, and Hillary Clinton, as well as many other women from high society.
It seemed that Judith Leiber effortlessly soared to the pinnacle of this recognition. However, behind the scenes lay countless unnoticed years, days, and hours of exhausting work and dazzling creativity. A few years before World War II, she mastered basic design skills in London, worked in a handbag manufacturing company in Budapest, earned the title of a skilled artisan, enhanced her artistic qualifications in the States, and opened her own firm there (more on that later).
This dry outline leaves no room for a detailed description of Judith Leiber’s minaudières, which were crafted in the shapes of butterflies, ducks, apple boxes, frog princesses, aquariums, ancient castles, lipsticks, ice creams, kittens, tomatoes, pandas, and more. However, describing all of this is a thankless task. For such expressions of boundless imagination, words fall short. It’s better to simply admire the masterfully crafted and richly decorated rarities created with a remarkable sense of humor.
About Her Personal Life. And Again, About Her Work
During the war, Judith’s family miraculously survived, despite never leaving the Hungarian capital. The reason was that her father obtained a document stating that his family was Swiss and, accordingly, resided in the residence of Swiss subjects.
When the war ended, Judith turned to making handbags. Among her clients were Americans. One of them, Sergeant Gerson Leiber, also born in 1921, became her husband in 1946. From then on, the couple did everything together. Gerson also had his own creative path—he expressed himself as an avant-garde artist under the pseudonym Gus. His works are preserved in institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) and the National Gallery of Art (Washington).
The couple moved to the United States and immersed themselves in the local art and social scene. In 1963, Judith Leiber took a truly significant step forward: she opened her own firm and fashion store in Chicago. Wealthy and famous women flocked to it. Over time, it grew into a fashion house specializing in bespoke jewelry, eyewear, umbrellas, and elite perfumes. This chapter of the designer’s history lasted for 35 years. In 1998, she decided to retire. Although she sold her company, she never truly became a retiree in the classic sense.
Judith Leiber with her husband
The restless and still idea-filled Leiber duo decided to create a museum of their family’s creative legacy, the Leiber Collection. Its doors opened in 2005. Near the museum, Gerson designed a park of his own making.
… Talent, recognition, and even love cannot stop the passage of time. The shared life of the 97-year-old couple, which lasted over 70 years, came to a halt one day—April 28, 2018. According to the official version, they died of heart attacks. Shortly before his passing, Gerson said, “Dear, it’s time for both of us.” And in any case, fate prepared a happy ending for the Leibers, if such a thing exists. Remaining on this earth alone held no meaning for either of them.