Dorothy Liebes | 7. The Civic Virtue Period

Liebes’s first marriage to a wealthy merchant fulfilled her plan to “marry a millionaire so I can do what I want.” She met Leon Liebes, president of San Francisco’s H. Liebes & Company, while he was on a buying trip to New York, and they engaged in a brief bicoastal courtship. Dorothy found Liebes erudite, worldly and handsome, and no doubt saw a way out of selling her handwoven pram blankets. Dorothy became Mrs. Leon Liebes in 1928 and returned to her beloved California to become a society matron.

The connections she made while doing philanthropic works paid big dividends in the near future. Her “civic virtue” period, however, left her numb. In the photo above, she is seen working on the Parilia Ball at the Fairmont Hotel with Maurice Sterne and Lucien Labaudt. She needed to create. So, she set up a handweaving studio in their 10-room apartment at the top of Nob Hill and sold yardage to designers. Guests of the Liebes’s, the cream of San Francisco society, noticed the studio’s output at dinner parties and were impressed. Some, like architect Timothy Pflueger, commissioned Dorothy to create draperies and upholstery material for venues including the members' dining club at the Pacific Coast Stock Exchange. 

Soon, she was garnering attention and winning awards but her marriage was languishing. Dorothy and Leon lived separately for about 10 years – she took a room at the Fairmont Hotel – before divorcing in 1946. He supported her, her parents, and her studio throughout this period. 

The Fairmont Hotel