Larry Levine Women's Fashion Brand

The label recognized for over 50 years for its well-bred American style guarantees impeccable fit and attention to detail. Larry Levine (May 10, 1926 – February 9, 1990) was an American designer of coats and suits. In 1951 Levine founded Larry Levine, Inc. By the mid-sixties his traditional, classic coats and suits were sold in virtually every clothing store in the country. A named designer, exact life dates, a 1951 founding and mid-sixties national reach: this is one of the most complete mid-century American records.

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A flat lay of women's tailored coats and suits - a classic wool coat, a blazer and tailored trousers arranged neatly with a small Apparel Search tag, product photography with no people and no mannequins

The label recognized for over 50 years for its well-bred American style guarantees impeccable fit and attention to detail. Larry Levine (May 10, 1926 – February 9, 1990) was an American designer of coats and suits. In 1951 Levine founded Larry Levine, Inc. By the mid-sixties his traditional, classic coats and suits were sold in virtually every clothing store in the country. A named designer, exact life dates, a 1951 founding and mid-sixties national reach: this is one of the most complete mid-century American records.

Larry Levine was one of a very few clothing manufacturers of his time to brand his own name. That sentence is the profile's key insight: in an era when manufacturers hid behind store labels, Levine put his own name on coats and suits and guaranteed the fit and detail behind it - an early American example of the designer-name model that later took over fashion. The well-bred American style the label is recognized for is therefore not a mood but a business decision: classic coats and suits, sold nationally, under a person's name that had to be protected by quality.

The Rothschild Years and the Return to Independence

Levine sold part of his company to S. Rothschild, Inc. in 1991 but remained as president; in 1996 Levine cut all ties with the S. Rothschild. The dates frame the designer's final chapter - he died on February 9, 1990, and the part-sale followed in 1991, with complete separation five years later. For collectors of the label, that timeline is the dating tool: founder-era pieces precede 1990, the Rothschild period runs 1991 to 1996, and the label's continuation after 1996 stands on its own, carrying the name without either the founder or the part-owner.

The design statement is a build-on-the-classics formula: Larry Levine builds on the classics, enhances them with clean lines, distinctive fabrics, superior craftsmanship and outstanding value; the result is clothing that is at once timeless, yet always current. Read that as a product specification rather than a slogan - classic coat and suit silhouettes, clean rather than decorated lines, fabrics chosen to be distinctive, craftsmanship named as a selling point, and value stated alongside quality. A Levine coat that fails any of those five tests is a piece from outside the label's discipline.

Shopping Larry Levine Coats and Suits

Shop the label the way it was built: coats and suits first, since those are the categories the founder designed and the mid-sixties stores stocked nationally. Check the fit guarantee's evidence - shoulder set, lapel roll, button stance and the finishing - the attention to detail - and read fabric composition before silhouette, because distinctive fabrics are one of the stated pillars. The brand's official site, larrylevine.com is linked in References below.

A designer who lived 1926 to 1990, founded his company in 1951, reached virtually every clothing store in the country by the mid-sixties, branded his own name when almost no manufacturer dared, sold part of the company to S. Rothschild in 1991 and saw all ties cut in 1996: Larry Levine is the L letter's classic American coat-and-suit label, and well-bred, timeless-yet-current is still the brief its garments should be bought against.

Common Questions

Who was Larry Levine?

An American designer of coats and suits (May 10, 1926 – February 9, 1990) who founded Larry Levine, Inc. in 1951 and was one of very few manufacturers of his time to brand his own name.

How successful was the label at its peak?

By the mid-sixties his traditional, classic coats and suits were sold in virtually every clothing store in the country, and the label has been recognized for over 50 years for well-bred American style, impeccable fit and attention to detail.

What happened with S. Rothschild?

Levine sold part of his company to S. Rothschild, Inc. in 1991 but remained as president; in 1996 he cut all ties with the company.

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Larry Levine Womens Jackets
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Larry Levine Clothing Brand
Larry Levine Clothing Brand

References & Further Reading

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