SPECIAL POST: Milliner and Entrepreneur Helen Liebert

Helen Liebert white leather "Penny Wise - Pound Foolish" large-size handbag. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum.

Closeup of the metal ornaments beneath the pockets.

Helen Liebert - Savoy Hilton, NY label inside bag above.

Milliner and Entrepreneur Helen Liebert

When The Vintage Purse Museum acquired the beautifully-made "Penny Wise - Pound Foolish" bag pictured above, we were intrigued by its label. And so our curator embarked upon yet another research journey. What was surprising to us was that the maker, Helen Liebert, is much better known for her hats, perfumes, men's toiletries, and neckties, while handbags with her label are quite scarce.

Helen Goldbach Liebert, Sept. 6, 1949, The Houston Chronicle, clipped via Newspapers.com.

Helen Goldbach was born in New York in 1896 to German immigrants Felix Goldbach (1866-1948) and Mathilde Bodenheimer Goldbach (1866-1929), who had four other children. The 1900 US Census says that Felix had a job as a "varnisher."

Per the 1920 US Census, Helen lived with her parents and three of her siblings, and worked as a clerk for a millinery company. We found a mention of "little Helen Goldbach, of the Tappe firm" in a 1920 newspaper article about the clothing designer, milliner, and very colorful character Herman Patrick Tappe. Specifically, this article was about legal action taken against him because of a practical joke he played on one of his sales staff (not Helen). 

In the 1930 US Census, Helen Goldbach lived with two of her sisters, and was a buyer at a "millinery store"—which we can say with confidence was Mr. Tappe's establishment.

Helen's brother Alfred (1894-1973) was married to a milliner named Elsa. We do not know if Elsa influenced Helen's career path or vice versa, or if they knew each other from Mr. Tappe's store. Alfred and Elsa eventually divorced and she relocated from New York to California with their child.

Helen married leather salesman Edward Coogan Liebert (b. 1906) on June 24, 1933 at the Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan. Their marriage certificate says they lived at 245 E. 72nd St., a 20-story building built in 1930 (per some websites; a date which we could not verify) in the Lenox Hill neighborhood of New York City.

Very soon after their marriage they began heavily promoting their millinery business, which had been founded years earlier by Herman Patrick Tappe.

1932 La Mode Chez Tappe trademark from the Official Gazette of the US Patent Office, screenshot via Google. It says "claims use since May, 1918," but Herman Patrick Tappe was known as a milliner even earlier than that.

In an August 1934 newspaper article, both Helen and Edward are acknowledged as designers of the "Goya," a larger version of the trendy beret. However, a September 1934 article in the Brooklyn Eagle newspaper makes no mention of Helen, but is very enthusiastic about Edward and his millinery designs. It also calls him "tall, dark and handsome" with a "profile" of "matinee idol perfection." We don't know if Helen had a hand in pushing him forward as the face of the company, but it could've been at the urging of their famous and—by many accounts—flamboyant business partner: the milliner, fashion designer and importer Herman Patrick Tappe (1878-1954).

Sept. 16, 1934 Brooklyn Eagle article about "tall, dark and handsome" Edward Liebert (pictured), with no mention of Helen Liebert. Clipped via Newspapers.com.

Hannah Nicole Benson's 2020 graduate thesis Glorifying the American Bride: Designer Herman Patrick Tappe and The Fantasy Wedding in America, 1910-1952 says that Helen Liebert was Mr. Tappe's assistant and protege. Helen and Edward eventually became co-owners with Mr. Tappe of La Mode Chez Tappe, which later became Helen Liebert - Tappe Hats. 

1934 was also the year that a different Helen Liebert of New York passed away under terrible circumstances. This Ms. Liebert was misidentified in the Chicago Tribune as the New York milliner, which also misstated that Edward was her brother. We could not find a correction or retraction.

Helen Liebert's penchant for inventory diversification started early, as we found a 1939 Harper's Bazaar ad that said she was carrying "a group of amusing walking sticks imported from England" at La Mode Chez Tappe. But her beautiful and stylish hats were, for many years, her best known contribution to fashion.

March 4, 1941, The Jersey Journal article about Helen Liebert and her hats. Clipped via Newspapers.com.

Edward Liebert registered for the WWII draft in 1940. His registration card says that he worked for La Mode Chez Tappe Inc. at 19 W. 57th St. He also listed his wife, Helen Liebert, and their home address of 1200 Fifth Ave. Several websites say that this building was designed by noted architect Emery Roth and was built in 1928, but we found a December 31, 1928 article saying that it was going to be built by H.R.H. Construction Co., with no mention of the architect. We found numerous archived newspaper references to buildings designed by Emery Roth in the 1928-1929 time frame, but not this one. This, of course, does not mean he didn't design it, but, as always, we do our best to corroborate claims of any sort in our articles.

The reason we mention the Lieberts' residences is that we find it noteworthy that they lived in fairly new (at the time), architecturally significant buildings in New York, which could be an indicator of their professional success and industry status.

In 1941, the Lieberts added perfumes to their millinery line, with one advertorial noting that they were packaging their scents in "bandboxes" resembling their signature hat boxes. 

Ad for Helen Liebert perfume, April 9, 1941, The Cincinnati Enquirer, clipped via Newspapers.com. The sketch shows that she used the La Mode Chez Tappe trademark on the "bandbox" packaging.

"Publicity is Broccoli," a 1941 book of anecdotes by publicist Constance Hope (1908-1977), has a paragraph about Helen and Edward Liebert. We can only see a snippet, which says "...Helen Liebert, the designer, and her husband, suave and good-looking Eddie Liebert. Then we went into the name-changing act. We felt that Liebert, not Tappe, was the important thing, particularly since Tappe had been..." The Vintage Purse Museum does not know the end of this sentence as the entire snippet is not accessible. However, at the time this book was published, Herman Patrick Tappe was mostly focused on his wedding and formal gown business, so perhaps Ms. Hope was crediting Helen Liebert for the Tappe hat business. (It also made us cringe a bit to see yet another writer discuss Edward Liebert's appearance.)

Photo of Herman Patrick Tappe in the Sept. 21, 1954 Sidney Daily News, clipped via Newspapers.com. Tappe was a native of Sidney, Ohio, and the biographical article that accompanied this photo was written upon his death.

In 1942, Helen Liebert was doing business as "Liebert Distributors," which is listed in the US Patent and Trademark Office's 1942 and 1943 Official Gazettes as a maker of "perfumes, toilet water, face and body powder, etc." 

The August 1943 edition of the trade publication The American Perfumer reported that Edward C. Liebert, vice president of "La Mode Chez Tappe, Inc. distributors of the Helen Liebert line of perfumes" was now a Lieutenant Junior Grade serving at the Boston Navy Yard. 

Helen Liebert men's products, May 17, 1945, The Tampa Tribune, clipped via Newspapers.com.

US military documents indicate that Edward Coogan Liebert served on a US Navy gun crew, and returned to New York from Algiers on the USS Thomas Stone. We found a 1949 article reporting that Helen Liebert said she had closed her millinery shop while Edward was in the military, and kept it closed after he came home wounded from his service. We saw that there were fewer newspaper and magazine advertisements for her hats from 1944 to 1945, but quite a number of ads for her line of men's toiletries, including cologne, aftershave, soap, powder, and deodorant, which seems to corroborate her statement that she'd temporarily shuttered the hat business.

There was some overlap of business names during the 1940s, as the Lieberts were still using La Mode Chez Tappe, in addition to Liebert Distributing, as well as the eponymous business name Helen Liebert. 

So the question is... how old is our Helen Liebert - Savoy Hilton handbag and what is its origin story? 

1953 was the earliest date we could find with a reference to Helen Liebert's boutique inside the Savoy Plaza hotel at 767 5th Ave. A trade directory listing shows this address with her as president and treasurer of La Mode Chez Tappe - Helen Liebert, and Edward Liebert as vice president and secretary. Their business is categorized as "perfume & hat mfrs and distrib."

A 1954 issue of Mademoiselle magazine describes the Helen Liebert store as "a chic, glass-enclosed boutique smack in the center of the Savoy-Plaza's hotel lobby." (The Savoy-Plaza appeared in print with and without its hypen over the years.)

In 1957, Hilton Hotels Corp. president Conrad Hilton announced plans to acquire the Savoy-Plaza, which then became the Savoy Hilton. Therefore, based on our handbag's label, we believe it dates to the late 1950s, maybe early 1960s. But why was this handbag in her boutique? Was she trying out handbags as a new product line? And who made this bag? One of our wonderful vintage purse friends on another of our social media platforms pointed out that "Penny wise and pound foolish" is a distinctly British saying. Perhaps the bag was imported from the UK. We will likely never know. (Note: We saw a 1940s Helen Liebert La Mode Chez Tappe hat with matching handbag on a sales site, which confirms that handbags were an earlier product of hers while she was at 19 W. 57th, but we have not seen any others. This does not mean that more don't exist. We believe they do, somewhere, perhaps in someone's attic!)

Helen Liebert the person—not the product—began to fade from view in the mid-1950s, but jumped back into the news in 1958, when she, along with nine other prestigious milliners, chose the famous women they thought wore their hats best. Helen's choice was New York socialite "Mrs. George P. Converse." We believe this was silent film actress and producer Anita Stewart (1895-1961).

Helen and Edward moved to Bridgewater, Connecticut in the late 1950s. The drive is just over two hours to New York City, so it seems likely that they had given up the day to day of their boutique at this point, possibly even closing it. The most recent reference that we could find to Helen Liebert's store being located inside the Savoy was in the 1960 edition of the industry publication American Druggist Blue Book. 

Whether or not the Lieberts closed the boutique before 1960, they likely saw the writing on the wall, as The Savoy Hilton hotel was clearly nearing its end. It was demolished in 1965 and replaced by the General Motors building.

For several years, Edward Liebert sponsored the Helen Liebert Essay Contest at The Burnham School in Bridgewater, Connecticut. 1960's essay topic was "The Person or Animal I Like Best in All The Books I Have Read."

In 1964, Helen Liebert, Inc. was located at 37 W. 57th, an office building, and she had refiled her signature Helen Liebert trademark, stating that it was first in use in 1940.

1964 was also the year that Helen Liebert's men's neckties made their appearance in newspaper advertisements. While researching these ties, we stumbled across a newspaper article about Louisiana necktie manufacturer Wembley, Inc., operated by Sidney Pulitzer, who acquired the Helen Liebert tie and toiletries lines. We believe that Wembley, Inc. had a licensing agreement with Helen Liebert. It's possible that she designed some of the ties, but it seems more likely that she had retired by then as she was 68 years old. We reached out to relatives of Mr. Pulitzer for information, but did not hear back. We will update this post if we do.

Helen Liebert tie, from the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum.

Feb. 11, 1965, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, clipped via Newspapers.com.

The last mention of Helen Liebert as a milliner that we could find was the aforementioned "who wore their hats best" article from 1958. Based on old ads, it seems that Helen Liebert men's toiletries were discontinued shortly after their acquisition by Wembley, Inc., and that her namesake ties were out of production by 1970.

Edward Liebert passed away in 1970 in Bridgewater, Connecticut. In 1985, Helen Liebert moved to Florida. She passed away at age 92 in 1988 in Orlando, Florida, survived by her sister Ruth. Her brief obituary said that "she was a retired wholesaler of millinery." Edward and Helen did not have any children. We attempted to find relatives of the Goldbachs and the Lieberts to interview for this article, but were unsuccessful.

Helen and Edward are interred at Mt. Lebanon Cemetery in Glendale, Queens County, New York, near Edward's parents, Abraham Liebert (1875-1928) and Mollye Cohen Liebert (1881-1975).

Those who follow our posts know that this was not a typical handbag history article for The Vintage Purse Museum. We wish we knew more about our fabulous Helen Liebert bag, but, even with our unanswered questions, we were very pleased to learn about the Lieberts and their work in the fashion and cosmetics industries.

This article c2025 by Wendy Dager/The Vintage Purse Museum. Resources used were Newspapers.com and MyHeritage.com, to which we have paid subscriptions. Other resources were Google, FamilySearch, Findagrave, and the FIT Institutional Repository, which archived the paper by Hannah Nicole Benson. Please do not use photos or information from this article or other posts on our website without permission, vintagepursemuseum@gmail.com.