Early Life
Leon was born Leonid Maxovich Rodovinski born in 1954 in Leningrad, Soviet Union (now Saint Petersburg, Russia). The son of a playwright, he attended an English school and read the novels of F. Scott Fitzgerald. On leaving school he became an apprentice in costume and set design with the Kirov Ballet aged 16, by 18 realised that the only way he could improve his lot was to flee Soviet Russia.
Of Russian Jewish background, Max obtained a visa to Israel i.e. Aliyah. Instead of changing planes in Vienna, he claimed political asylum.
He said during an interview to the Daily Mail : '‘I was being driven through Vienna in a government van. The streets were very beautiful but the signs were all in German, a language I did not speak. That was the moment I realised I had to sink or swim.’'
Changing his name to Leon Max by taking his fathers first name as his surname, Max enrolled at the New York Fashion Institute of Technology. He worked for New York fashion house Tahari, and then Los Angeles-based Bis, a women’s sportswear firm.
Read more about this topic: Leon Max
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or life:
“We passed the Children’s Bureau bill calculated to prevent children from being employed too early in factories.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“I hid my love when young till I
Couldn’t bear the buzzing of a fly;
I hid my life to my despite
Till I could not bear to look at light:
I dare not gaze upon her face
But left her memory in each place;
Where’er I saw a wild flower lie
I kissed and bade my love good-bye.”
—John Clare (1793–1864)