Levi Higgs, Head of Archives and Brand Heritage, David Webb, New York

David Webb’s jewelry remains astonishingly popular today, nearly 50 years after the designer’s early death in 1975. As one of America’s premier postwar jewelers, Webb’s bold and colorful designs appealed to a young and stylish clientele with a growing taste for a more personal style in women’s fashion. The thousands of sketches that David Webb left behind not only document his eclectic and evolving style — but provide his eponymous firm with a treasure trove of designs that has kept it in business to this day.  The lecture will explore Webb’s career, creations and his myriad sources of inspiration, ranging from astrology to royal orders to pre-Columbian artifacts.

Levi Higgs