Helpern, Joan, 1926-2016 (1926-2016)
Dates
- Existence: 1926-2016
Biography
Joan Helpern was an American shoe designer. She was the head designer of the Joan & David line of shoes, a company she co-owned with her husband David Helpern. Joan & David popularized elegant, comfortable — and non-high-heeled — shoes for working women in the 1960s.
Joan Evelyn Marshall was born on October 10, 1926 in the Bronx. She attended Hunter College in Manhattan, majoring in economics, psychology and English. She earned a master's degree in social psychology from Columbia University and a doctorate in psychology from Harvard University.
Joan and David married in 1960. David Helpern worked in his family's clothing stores and for a time, Joan was a child psychologist in the New York City school system. Joan began her second career as a shoe designer in the 1960s, working for a small Boston shoe company and as a consultant to a firm that operated several chains. Eventual she and David decided to start the Joan & David shoe label.
“We had noticed that women were running through airports,” Ms. Helpern told The New York Times in 2012. “We decided to make shoes for women who run through airports.”
Within two decades, Joan & David, founded in Cambridge, Mass., was selling shoes and men and women’s apparel, bags and belts in about 100 outlets in the United States and Europe and grossing about $100 million. It had boutiques in the Ann Taylor retail chain and a flagship store on Madison Avenue in New York, where the company was later based.
In 2000, after five years of financial difficulties, the company sought bankruptcy protection and was sold to the Maxwell Shoe Company for $16.8 million.
David Helpern, from whom Joan was legally separated in 1998, died in 2012.
Found in 15 Collections and/or Records:
May 9-10, 1998, 1998
This folder contains a column on Joan Halpern and a black and white portrait of Joan and David Halpern and color photos of ensembles and accessories by Joan and David.
May 20-21, 1995, 1995
This folder contains a column on handbags and black and white photos of handbags by Robert Lee Morris and black and white photocopies of photos of handbags by Paloma Picasso and Joan and David.
May 27-28, 1995, 1995
This folder contains a column on shoes and black and white photos of shoes by Yves Saint Laurent, Joan Halpern and black and white photocopies of photos of shoes by Joan and David.
September 4-5 1993, 1993
This folder contains a column on shoes and black and white photos of shoes by Joan Halpern of Joan and David, Kenneth Cole, Yves Saint Laurent, and Roger Vivier.
September 23-24, 1995, 1995
This folder contains a column on accessories and color photos of accessories by Paloma Picasso, Judith Leiber, Cartier and black and white photocopies of photos of wigs by Karl Lagerfeld and shoes by Joan & David.