Lea Stein Paris

Designer French Brooches

You can own an original Lea Stein®!

Lea Stein designs 2 new pieces per year.

Parisian designer, Lea Stein, was destined to be an influential innovator in the fashion jewelry industry of France and the world. In the 1960's she began making jewelry and was the first craftsperson to mix plastic with cloth to make her revolutionary new designs.

Lea Stein is known for her contemporary, colorful, celluloid jewelry. She invented a painstaking hands-on lamination process decades ago so she could create extraordinary colors, textures and patterns, the like of which are still used in contemporary jewelry today. Her pieces are known for their multi-layered construction. No two pieces of Lea Stein jewelry are exactly alike; each is collectible, signed by Lea Stein, and referenced in various Collectors' Reference books.

Lea Stein was born in 1936. She began a design company in 1957 and began plying fabrics for a unique and different textured look. From 1965 to 1967, she began to make buttons. In 1967 she began to work in rhodoid and created the first rhodoid buttons in her unique style.

The Vintage Lea Stein period was from 1969 to 1981 during which were made all the Vintage styles like Rabbit, Rhino, Panther, Crocodile, Choupette (basset), Poodle, Tomcat, Felix, Carmen (Joan Crawford), Ballerina (Scarlett O'Hara) Skateboard Boy , Tennis Woman, Stretch Bracelets, and so many more! It was after these "golden years," during which the company grew to employ 50 additional workers, that the company was put out of business by Asian competition. At that time, an American dealer bought a large amount of Lea's inventory and began to sell the pieces in New York and throughout the United States. They soon became very popular and Lea Stein became the world-renowned designer she is today.

All Vintage Lea Stein pins were created from 1969 to 1981. Some books incorrectly state that Lea Stein's pins were made in the 20's and 30's. There are two reasons for this: 1- Lea was influenced by the Art Deco period. 2 - The material she uses looks like Bakelite so many people think they are from the 30's.

In 1988, Lea Stein returned to her calling; designing and creating unique and lovely jewelry. She began the tradition of creating a new piece about once a year after serious study of the design. So were born Buba (owl), Bacchus, Gomina (sleeping cat), Attila (standing cat), Tortoise, Ric (dog), and several others. The latest patterns created by Lea Stein are Mrs Ladybug in 1998 and Porcupine in 2000. Her most popular design, the Fox, is a vintage piece but is still being made today. There isn't an obvious way to tell them apart. The Foxes on this site are new. New for 2004 are Tom the Bear and Leo the Tiger.

Each of Lea Stein's pins have her trademark signature on the backing as shown below.

Photo courtesy of Judy Smith, Quilt Art

Reference books

	Lea Stein Jewelry by Judith Just Hardcover: 160 pages Publisher: Schiffer Publishing, Ltd.; (10/01)
	Christmas Pins Past and Present: Identification and Value Guide (Christmas Pins) Paperback: 128 pages Dimensions (in inches): 0.31 x 11.18 x 8.22 Publisher: Collector Books; 2nd edition (11/1/03)
	European Designer Jewelry by Ginger Moro Hardcover: 302 pages Dimensions (in inches): 1.18 x 11.24 x 8.73 Publisher: Schiffer Publishing; (71/95)
	Twentieth Century Fashionable Plastic Jewelry by Lillian Baker
	Plastic Jewelry of the Twentieth Century: Identification & Value Guide by Lillian Baker Hardcover: 240 pages Dimensions (in inches): 0.81 x 11.14 x 8.70 Publisher: Collector Books; Updated / edition (6/1/03)