ROBERTA'S STORY
going full circle

Leather Queen Roberta Weissburg
Metropolitan
September/October 2005
(PDF | 627 KB)

Roberta Weissburg Leathers began very humbly in my apartment in Pittsburgh’s Shadyside after I left graduate school in 1979. I decided that I wouldn't, after all, become a professor of English Literature, as tenured employment was becoming very difficult to expect. Happily for me, this choice has been an excellent one -- providing my staff and me with an exciting business and a daily opportunity to enrich our lives in many ways.

I joined a group of three other women artists in December 1980, and we formed a working studio and gallery on East Carson Street in Pittsburgh’s South Side. This was at the beginning of the resurgence of this great neighborhood. I served for 16 years on the board of directors and two years as president of South Side Local Development Company. This commitment has now culminated in the opening of our new Roberta Weissburg Leathers store in the South Side Works, which is located on the old J&L steel mill site.

In the late 1980s, we opened a second store on Walnut Street, Pittsburgh’s most upscale retail area. Our space was all of 200 square feet, but this exposure afforded us a great boost to business. The business has grown (and our store has tripled in size) because of our reputation for items as distinctive as custom leather wedding gowns, custom cowboy boots and furs from France. We're also Pittsburgh's only Brighton Heart store with the special distinction of carrying this wonderful company's full-line of leather goods and accessories.

Roberta Weissburg and
husband Richard Fox

Now I'll be returning to the South Side neighborhood I know and love with a beautiful, new 1,100-sq-foot store in South Side Works, just two blocks away from The Cheesecake Factory. In keeping with the area's industrial past, our store will feature light fixtures from the actual J&L steel mill, as well as retail fixtures made with materials reclaimed from other steel mills. There, in this unique setting, we'll sell our one-of-a-kind leather creations, plus lots of new and exciting items from many of the world’s finest and brightest, and, of course, all of the beautifully crafted merchandise from our long-time favorites such as Dominic Bellissimo, Lucchese, Rizal, Jekel, Brighton, John Medeiros and more.

See you in Shadyside and the South Side.