美国国家公共电台 NPR Art You Can Wear On Your Arm? For Judith Leiber, It's In The Bag

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Judith Leiber's handbags can be shaped like penguins¹, crystal-covered zebras, streetcars, firecrackers. They have been carried by first ladies and celebrities², not including BJ Leiderman, who writes our theme music. And now they're the subject of an exhibition at the Museum of Art and Design in Manhattan. Judith Leiber handbags - they're legendary³. The designer is now 96 years old, lives on Long Island with her husband who is also an artist. And that's where Karen Michel visited them to prepare this profile.

KAREN MICHEL, BYLINE⁴: Judith Leiber handbags are meant more to wow than to schlep.

JUDITH LEIBER: I wanted to make something that was more interesting and more special than what other people made.

MICHEL: Which, for a Judith Leiber, also meant not cheap.

J. LEIBER: Yes, I wanted to make the most expensive bags that anybody could make. That's what I like to do.

MICHEL: Leiber initially⁵ planned to make her fortune in cosmetics⁶. Her family sent her to university in London to study chemistry. But World War II broke out, and she returned to her native Hungary. Completing her education was no longer an option, and the Jewish teenager became apprentice⁷ to a handbag company, rising to master craftswoman. But the business closed.

J. LEIBER: Because as soon as times got worse, you couldn't do anything.

MICHEL: Her family was moved from their home, her father sent to a camp, and Judith, her sister and mother were forced to live in the ghetto⁸. But they all survived the Holocaust⁹. Judith met an American soldier, Gus Leiber, and in 1946, moved with him to New York, where she worked in the American handbag industry. She founded her own company in 1963 at her husband's insistence¹⁰.

GUS LEIBER: Every night, she would cut patterns. She was simply a genius with a knife. She worked night and day. It was remarkable¹¹.

MICHEL: Gus Leiber taught art by day and, in his spare time, made deliveries or whatever else his wife's fledgling company needed. The company grew rapidly from four employees to 200. All told, Leiber designed 3,500 bags. There are about half that many in the museum next to her house. Ann Stewart is the collection's manager and says Leiber's ideas could come from anywhere - paintings she'd seen, a piece of pottery¹², photographs, nature, produce.

ANN STEWART: She did do a series of food - tomato, we have an eggplant; we have asparagus. Those are really fun.

MICHEL: The tomato looks tempting¹³ enough, in its blood-redness, to eat. The eggplant is a perfect specimen¹⁴, and the bunch of asparagus - it was sculptor¹⁵ Larry Kallenberg's job to make many of the 3-D wax molds used to cast Judith Leiber's bags.

LARRY KALLENBERG: This asparagus has always been the favorite of all the things that I've ever made for her - lions, peacocks - every day. But asparagus pocketbook - how crazy is that? And how wonderful that she would think of it.

MICHEL: Leiber called him her buddy¹⁶ boy.

KALLENBERG: I was her hands. They were all her ideas. What I did was to modify somewhat - every once in a while, I would come up with a design. But basically, everything was run by her. Her factory was run by her. Her ideas were the things that propelled the projects. And I just did what she told me to do - magnificently, true, but they were all Judith Leiber.

MICHEL: And now nearly 100 of them are in New York's Museum of Art and Design, the first major museum exhibition of her work in more than 20 years. Samantha De Tillio curated the show.

SAMANTHA DE TILLIO: She, I think, introduced the idea that handbags could be whimsical and fun and that kind of humor could be appropriate for the red carpet or for a first lady. And so I think she created the environment where maybe women wanted something different and then filled it very successfully.

MICHEL: Now Judith Leiber is retired¹⁷. She likes to sit in a comfy chair in her spacious¹⁸, light-and-art-filled home and read murder mysteries.

J. LEIBER: You know, I was very happy with all the bags I made. I made all kinds of things. Some of them were very classic. Some of them were kind of crazy. But we did all kinds of things that I thought were very good.

MICHEL: And so did the people who spend as much as several thousand dollars a pop to own one.

For NPR News, I'm Karen Michel.

1 penguins   

n.企鹅( penguin的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Why can penguins live in cold environment? 为什么企鹅能生活在寒冷的环境中？ 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Whales, seals, penguins, and turtles have flippers. 鲸、海豹，企鹅和海龟均有鳍形肢。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

2 celebrities   

n.（尤指娱乐界的）名人( celebrity的名词复数 )；名流；名声；名誉

参考例句：

• He only invited A-list celebrities to his parties. 他只邀请头等名流参加他的聚会。
• a TV chat show full of B-list celebrities 由众多二流人物参加的电视访谈节目

3 legendary   

adj.传奇（中）的，闻名遐迩的；n.传奇（文学）

参考例句：

• Legendary stories are passed down from parents to children.传奇故事是由父母传给孩子们的。
• Odysseus was a legendary Greek hero.奥狄修斯是传说中的希腊英雄。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

6 cosmetics   

n.化妆品

参考例句：

• We sell a wide range of cosmetics at a very reasonable price. 我们以公道的价格出售各种化妆品。
• Cosmetics do not always cover up the deficiencies of nature. 化妆品未能掩饰天生的缺陷。

7 apprentice   

n.学徒，徒弟

参考例句：

• My son is an apprentice in a furniture maker's workshop.我的儿子在一家家具厂做学徒。
• The apprentice is not yet out of his time.这徒工还没有出徒。

8 ghetto   

n.少数民族聚居区，贫民区

参考例句：

• Racism and crime still flourish in the ghetto.城市贫民区的种族主义和犯罪仍然十分猖獗。
• I saw that achievement as a possible pattern for the entire ghetto.我把获得的成就看作整个黑人区可以仿效的榜样。

9 holocaust   

n.大破坏；大屠杀

参考例句：

• The Auschwitz concentration camp always remind the world of the holocaust.奥辛威茨集中营总是让世人想起大屠杀。
• Ahmadinejad is denying the holocaust because he's as brutal as Hitler was.内贾德否认大屠杀，因为他像希特勒一样残忍。

10 insistence   

n.坚持；强调；坚决主张

参考例句：

• They were united in their insistence that she should go to college.他们一致坚持她应上大学。
• His insistence upon strict obedience is correct.他坚持绝对服从是对的。

11 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

12 pottery   

n.陶器，陶器场

参考例句：

• My sister likes to learn art pottery in her spare time.我妹妹喜欢在空余时间学习陶艺。
• The pottery was left to bake in the hot sun.陶器放在外面让炎热的太阳烘晒焙干。

13 tempting   

a.诱人的, 吸引人的

参考例句：

• It is tempting to idealize the past. 人都爱把过去的日子说得那么美好。
• It was a tempting offer. 这是个诱人的提议。

14 specimen   

n.样本，标本

参考例句：

• You'll need tweezers to hold up the specimen.你要用镊子来夹这标本。
• This specimen is richly variegated in colour.这件标本上有很多颜色。

15 sculptor   

n.雕刻家，雕刻家

参考例句：

• A sculptor forms her material.雕塑家把材料塑造成雕塑品。
• The sculptor rounded the clay into a sphere.那位雕塑家把黏土做成了一个球状。

16 buddy   

n.（美口）密友，伙伴

参考例句：

• Calm down,buddy.What's the trouble?压压气，老兄。有什么麻烦吗？
• Get out of my way,buddy!别挡道了，你这家伙！

17 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

18 spacious   

adj.广阔的，宽敞的

参考例句：

• Our yard is spacious enough for a swimming pool.我们的院子很宽敞，足够建一座游泳池。
• The room is bright and spacious.这房间很豁亮。