Erwine laverne biography
Erwine Laverne () and Estelle Lester () met in at the Art Students League in New York, where they were both studying painting..
Erwine and Estelle Laverne
Erwine Laverne (1909-2003) and Estelle Lester (1915-1997) met in 1932 at the Art Students League in New York, where they were both studying painting, and married two years later.
After their marriage, they needed to earn a living.
Erwine and Estelle Laverne were an influential husband-and-wife design team known for their innovative furniture designs during the midth century.
Both came from families of craftsmen: Estelle's father was a jewelry designer; Erwine's father was a painter and itinerant decorator who traveled the country painting murals in churches and synagogues, often commissioning his children to paint the backgrounds.
Once, when a hand-printed wallpaper failed to arrive from France, the family decided to do it themselves. That's how Erwine along with his brother and a friend started a hand-printed wallpaper business.
Pooling their talents and focusing on design, they created Laverne Originals in 1938, an influential New York company driven by their modern, precise and unique artistic style that eventually became Laverne International.
A chance meeting with a Macy's executive in 1942