Judith Leiber is the world's foremost designer of elegant ladies' handbags. Born Judith Peto in Budapest, Hungary, she trained as a handbag maker in a traditional European guild system, learning every aspect of her craft from tanning the skins, to designing the frames and clasps, to painstakingly applying rhinestones with the tiniest tweezers imaginable. At age 18, she was the first woman to join the handbag makers guild. After World War II, she met an American soldier, Gerson Leiber; the couple were married and moved to New York City in 1947. Judith Leiber joined a major New York...