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To carry a bag of the Judith Leiber brand, specifically a 'minaudière' (in the strict sense, a handbag with a rigid, metallic structure, which opens with a hardware system, unlike the 'clutch'), you must have at least three things: sense of humor, allergy to discretion and money. The latter because, although you can find some models for 700, 1,300, 3,000 euros ..., those that really make a difference, those that distinguish and are not forgotten, those that make you a member of the club of the 'chosen' -hallelujah!-, do not fall below 5,000 turkeys.

From there up are those that, yes or yes, appear and shine (for something they can be made with up to 14,000 crystals and plated in gold or silver) on each red carpet in Hollywood and surrounding areas. As in the last Met Gala, where Chloe Fineman wore a striking pink 'Choupette' cat (remember that 'Choupette was Karl Lagerfeld's cat and pink, the most hated color of the dressmaker), made for her, 'to measure'. In the 'afterparty', the actress wore another model of cat bag, the 'Cat Marie', white.

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Also at the Met, the singer Ice Spice dared with the 'Camera Flash Clutch', in the form, yes, of a camera. They wore in the event bags of Judith Leiber, although less apocalyptic than the previous ones, Miranda Kerr, Dee Ocleppo Hilfiger, Mindy Kaling ... All of them very different profiles of women, but with something in common. In 2020, journalist Daisy Shaw-Ellis described in 'Vanity Fair' Judith Leiber's bags as "the common denominator of fame" and stated that they should be "the only thing that Hillary Clinton, Kim Kardashian and Beverly Sills [an influential soprano of the second half of the <>th century] have in common."

The Cat Marie model open.J.L.

Judith Leiber's bags come out (of the mold)

Inevitable to wonder, and ask, what do Judith Leiber's Haute Couture bags have for everyone to raffle off. So we spoke to Jana Matheson, the company's creative director. What makes the company's designs fit into our time as well? "I think today's women love unique pieces that express their own personality and interests. In addition, the collectible nature of Judith Leiber Couture's designs and the possibility of preserving and transmitting them from generation to generation also makes them very attractive. It seems to me that now more than ever before, women who love fashion love timeless pieces," she says.

Jana Matheson, creative director of Judith Leiber Couture.J.L.

On the thin ridge of a roof whose skirts are elegance and extravagance, Judith Leiber's bags have, yes, unexpected shapes, from a wedge of watermelon to a cocktail glass through a hot air balloon, a conch, a rabbit, a lipstick, an ice cream, a baby, a mobile phone ... And they are so instagrammable that although the firm was born in 1963, the current need to shine above the rest has made them an accessory among the most coveted.

The fact that top celebrities such as Beyoncé, for whom they have already developed several custom minaudières, Sarah Jessica Parker, Zendaya, Blake Lively, the Jenners, Kim Kardashian, Miley Cyrus ... are clients, only increases their aura of exclusivity and, of course, their desirability rate. Judith Leiber handbags are to 2023 what Fabergé eggs are to the nineteenth century, a rare, expensive and collector's item. Many are in museums (among others, at the Met in New York) and for a few years, the company collects all those created to this day for its own private collection, the Leiber Museum, on Long Island.

The Doberman of Kendall (Jenner), made to measure and that has become in the catalog the brand.J.L.

Tailor-made bags that do not leave you indifferent

Then there are the bespoke pieces, which are made to order and often later become part of the catalogue for 'mere mortals'. Like Kylie's 'Lightning', Kim's 'Alien', Khloe's 'Golden Cube', Kendall's 'Doberman' or Katy Perry's famous 'Mushroom'. The brand also develops collaborations with major fashion houses and designers on a roll. Very famous was his minaudiére 'Show Me The Money', with Alexander Wang (from 2017, a wad of rolled bills that Beyoncé wore and that sold out despite its price, 5,000 euros, as soon as it went on sale on the designer's website). The brand has also collaborated with Lanvin, Ashley Longshore, Hello Kitty (of course)...

Katy Perry's 'mushroom'.J.L.

Is co-design with celebrities common? "As a haute couture brand, one of our approaches is to make unique and exclusive pieces," explains Jana Matheson. "As a designer, I spend a lot of time partnering with clients with unique ideas that I can use to design special pieces for them." The most complicated pieces she has worked on so far, the creator tells us, are "pieces that include light and movement, as well as being 'a simple bag'".

Matheson especially enjoys, he adds, the process of designing those custom pieces and, incidentally, "getting to know the loves and inspirations in the lives of my clients. Sharing moments of fantasy and joy with some of the world's most interesting talents and tastemakers, it's always great! Stories of family superstitions, whims, and most importantly, our favorite things emerge in conversations."

Who was Judith Leiber

Of Hungarian origin and family of possible, Judith Leiber (1921-2018) was saved by the hair of the Holocaust, and with her family survived the Nazis first and then the Red Army without leaving her native Hungary. Before that she had been the first woman to graduate in a master's degree in leather goods, and also the first to join the guild of handbag manufacturers in Budapest, a capital that served her after the war to make bags for the secretaries of the American legation in Budapest and thanks to that meet the plastic artist Gerson Gus Leiber, at that time a sergeant in the American army, whom he married and moved to New York in 1947. After 20 years of working for others, he founded his own company in 1967.

Judith Leiber with Karl Lagerfeld in 1980.GETTY IMAGES

Leiber's finding was not the metal clutch, which already existed. But its 'Chatelaine' design, a purse-shaped bag made of metal, paradoxically made the difference. She wanted to create a metal bag that women did not have to keep in the safe deposit box of their bank, that is, that was not made with a precious metal. In principle it was going to be just that, an affordable metal bag. But when she received the merchandise from the Italian manufacturer to whom she had entrusted its elaboration, she saw that the final result was not as fine as she had expected. So he decided to cover the lower half with Swarovski crystals. And so was born what for decades would be the most popular of her bags, and the one that launched her to stardom.

The Martini bag with olives.J.L.

The Martini bag with olives, open.J.L.

Of course, covering a bag with crystals is not a task that takes you a while. So a bag that was born as accessible became, out of sheer necessity, inaccessible. Still today each one is made by hand, which can mean up to two weeks of work by a craftsman. The desire for uniqueness is so high, and always has been, that even some crystal colorshave been created for decades specifically for the brand. But there's one more thing that makes Judith Leiber's bags unmistakable: her sense of humor. We talked about it with its creative director.

-Judith Leiber's bags seem to want to show that luxury and humor are not two exclusive concepts...

-Definitely yes, luxury and humor are not two separate concepts. It seems to me that luxury should never consist in taking oneself too seriously. In fact, perhaps one of life's greatest luxuries is laughing a lot with friends or family, isn't it? Art, fashion, and even interiors can be infused with luxury, but the greatest pleasure is when they invoke a thought, surprise you, even bring to your lips a smile or a sense of delight. When I have an idea for a new bag that makes me laugh, I know it will be a hit."

Koi fish, another of Judith Leiber's designs.J.L.

Because as Etro designer Marco de Vincenzo recently stated in an interview in British Vogue when asked about what we should look for when choosing a bag, "more easily than with clothes, it is an opportunity to leave our comfort zone. Choose something nice and eccentric, why not?" Well, why not?

The bag Basket of red roses.J.L.

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