18 September 2026 |
Herbert Levine designer Trevor Houston is all about reviving weird shoes.
Even if you think you’ve never seen a pair of Herbert Levine shoes, you’ve certainly felt their influence. From 1949 to 1975, designer Beth Levine was pumping out experimental wonders: newsprint sandals, carved wooden heels, and boots with built- in stockings – everything outlandish under the sun. To put it simply: Levine was the original godmother of weird shoes. So, when the time came to revive the brand in 2025 (five decades after the business shuttered in 1975 and nearly 20 years after Beth Levine’s death in 2006), it called for someone who truly understood the eccentric, niche history of this once wildly popular label.
Enter Trevor Houston: a footwear fanatic and designer who had spent years collecting the Herbert Levine brand, building an archive of 400-plus pairs of shoes – from everyday necessities to truly mind-bending, museum-worthy examples. Today, Houston is the mastermind behind the new Herbert Levine, designing clear PVC loafers with a chunky lucite heel, cherry-red translucent-mesh knee-high boots, and open-toe sculptural mules capped with hardware that mirrors glamorous mid-century jewelry.
Tracee Ellis Ross, Odessa A’zion, and Emilia Clarke are recent fans, and you can find the shoes at Saks Fifth Avenue, Net-a-Porter, Moda Operandi, and Mytheresa. “I grew up in a really small town in Texas, very rural,” says Houston. “You either played sports or were in band. But I was always interested in fashion and the idea of storytelling through your dressing and the image of everything.” Houston went to Parsons School of Design and studied menswear, later interning at Marc Jacobs in the footwear department, beginning in 2011. He worked under then-design director Irene Chung, whom he calls “a true character and a real mentor.” Fast forward to today and Houston has designed many an it-shoe at Marc Jacobs, The Row (jelly sandals), and Khaite (Eva pumps). “For me, it was like, wait, this is sculpture,” he says of creating his unusual takes on footwear. “This is something that feels so cinematic.” Houston is on a mission to help Beth Levine reclaim her history by adding her name to the shoe’s branding for the first time ever. Her name never appeared on the box until now – the label always carried her husband, Herbert’s.
from left: black box sketches by Beth Levine’s sister, Ruthie Ballin; red box sketches by Houston
Levine’s résumé read like a catalog of footwear firsts: the Spring-O-Lator mule, held to the foot by a hidden strip of elastic, the ‘topless’ No-Shoe, which was dreamt up on a dare and then fixed to the sole with little more than adhesive, and the 1961 Cinderella transparent vinyl slipper perched on a plexiglass heel. She reinforced stiletto heels with steel, lined sandals with Astroturf, and built the boots that walked in the promos for Nancy Sinatra’s infamous 1966 anthem. Because of her, the brand counts three First Ladies and a roster of screen icons, Marilyn Monroe among them, as fans.
It’s no wonder Houston’s a fan. Raised on vintage and devoted to the icons of fashion’s past, he lived and breathed the brand long before he was appointed. Now he draws on his aforementioned personal archive of Levine’s rarest designs, hunted down from every corner of the internet. He is diligently reworking the unconventional silhouettes that have been lost to time. Like the Sheer Perfection, a pair of sleek barely there pantaboots constructed from sheer tights, creating the illusion of a second skin. Or the Hidden Gem, a sandal inspired by the archives with “a very sinuous heel and then the front kind of folds over on itself and goes up into a T-strap.” Houston says reviving Levine’s design is “innovation in footwear. There’s no real comparison; it’s hard to find another designer who is at that level of invention. Everything’s cyclical, and design itself is referential to different times, no matter what time you’re living in.”
In the midst of designing his upcoming collection, he recalls coming across an old Herbert Levine slingback ad that had run in the local Corpus Christi newspaper, placed by a department store an hour from his Texas hometown. “It just hit me,” he says. “This was a major moment in American footwear, and in fashion, really.” There has also never been a time like the present for unconventional footwear. “I’m a strong believer that the past informs the future,” he says. “The way people dressed in the past is an inspirational thing for me.” Consider Houston the heir to the godmother of weird shoes, and he’s just getting started.
from left: Herbert Levine FW26 campaign; lithograph by Marcel Vertès 1956; the ‘No-Shoe’ photographed by Milton H. Greene for ‘Life’ in February 1968; 1950s advertisement by illustrator Saul Steinberg published in ‘The New Yorker’ and ‘Harper’s Bazaar’
Taken from 10 Magazine USA Issue 7 – HERITAGE, LEGACY, FUTURE – out September 18! Order your copy here.
Photographer MAIWENN RAOULT
Talent DARYA KHONSARY, GABRIELA ORTEGA GARCIA,
AISSA ROSE, SARA LEE HANTMAN, THALIA GOCHEZ,
DEONDRE DAVIS, JACOB JONAS, KARLA SUBERO PITTOL,
CARLOS JARAMILLO, and MAH FERRAZ
Text DALYA BENOR
Sittings editor ALMA DE GANAY
