TheHistorialist: 1949 - 1950 | BETH & HERBERT LEVINE

No survivors from the 1949/1950 time frame - but one - or so it seems, but Helene Verin describes the very first collection:

“The Levine’s first collection, in February of 1949, consisted of one shoe, named “Femme Fatale”, which had a thin wrap-around ankle strap and a V-Cut closed toe vamp on a single sole. They showed it in a myriad of bright colours (which were considered vulgar at the time) and fabrications: satin with coloured stones, suede with grosgrain ribbons, kidskin with pearls and so on.”

Helene Verin

Beth Levine Shoes (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 2009)

And here it comes the first advertisement we could find: December of the same year, and the Verin's shoe description fits.

1949 | Herbert Levine

Festive footnote - jet-flecked suedes

Source: The Salt Lake City Tribune | December 4, 1949

Given the good response of their debut, a few months later they didn’t stray to much with the second collection named “ Merry Gala”:

“For a fresh, smart, spring-feel afoot! They can’t resist the opulence of Herbert Levine’s “Merry Gala” collection … blonde, honey-mellow calf, emblazoned with minute, gold railheads. Hand lasted and masterfully designed, these are shoes you’ll wear, with distinction ’til after midnight!”