From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Anne Elisabeth Jane "Liz" Claiborne (March 31,
1929 – June 26, 2007) was a Belgian-born American fashion designer and entrepreneur.
Claiborne is best known for founding Liz Claiborne Inc. which in 1986 became
the first company founded by a woman to make the Fortune 500. [1]
Claiborne was the first woman to become chairperson and CEO of a Fortune 500 company. [2]
Early
life and education
Claiborne was born in Brussels to American parents. She came from a
prominent Louisiana
family with an ancestor William C.C.
Claiborne having been Governor of
Louisiana during the War of 1812. [1]
In 1939, at the start of World War II, the family returned to New Orleans.[1]
She attended St. Timothy's, a boarding school
then in Catonsville, Maryland and
currently in Stevenson, Maryland. Rather than
finishing high school, she went to Europe to study art in painters'
studios.[3]
Her father did not believe that she needed an education, so she
studied art informally.[3]
In 1949, she won the Jacques Heim National Design Contest
(sponsored by Harper's Bazaar), and then moved
to New York City
where she worked for years in the Garment District on Seventh Avenue[3]
as a sketch artist at the sportswear house Tina Leser. She worked
as a designer for Dan Keller and Youth Group Inc.[4]
Claiborne had a short-lived marriage before marrying Art
Ortenberg in 1957. She had a son from her first marriage and two
stepchildren from her second. [1]
Liz Claiborne
Inc.
Main article:
Liz ClaiborneClaiborne, frustrated at the failure of the companies that she
worked for to provide clothes for working women,[1]
started her own design company, Liz Claiborne Inc., in 1976. It was an
immediate success with sales of $2 million in 1976 and $23 million
in 1978.[4]
By 1988 it had acquired one-third of the American women's upscale
sportswear market.[3]
In 1980, Liz Claiborne Accessories was founded by Nina McLemore.
Liz Claiborne Inc. went public in 1981 and made the Fortune 500 in
1986 with retail sales of $1.2 billion.[4]
Claiborne listed all employees in the directory in alphabetical
order to circumvent what she perceived as male hierarchies.[3]
She controlled meetings by ringing a glass bell and
became famous for her love of red-- "Liz Red."[3]
She would sometimes pose as a saleswoman to see what average women
thought of her clothes.[3]
Retirement
and death
Liz Claiborne retired from active management in 1989. By that
stage, she had acquired other companies, notably Kaiser-Roth, which
produced Liz Claiborne accessories.[1]
In retirement, Claiborne and Ortenberg founded a foundation that
distributed millions in funding to environmental causes including
funding the television series Nature on PBS television[1]
and nature conservancy projects around the world.
She had been advised in 1997 that she had a rare form of cancer
affecting the lining of the abdomen. [5] Liz
Claiborne died on June 26, 2007 at the age of 78, following a long
battle with the cancer. [6]
References
- ^ a
b
c
d
e
f
g
Bernstein, Adam (June 28, 2007). "Liz Claiborne, 78; Fashion
Industry Icon". Washington
Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/27/AR2007062701593.html?nav=rss_metro/obituaries. Retrieved 2007-07-21. "Liz
Claiborne, 78, an American fashion designer who built a
billion-dollar apparel enterprise by clothing career women in
stylish but casual outfits at moderate prices, died June 26 at New
York Presbyterian Hospital. She had cancer. With the backing of a
handful of investors, she and her second husband, design executive
Arthur Ortenberg, formed Liz Claiborne Inc. in 1976. An immediate
hit, the business broke within a decade into Fortune magazine's
list of the 500 largest companies in the United States. Her company
was the first started by a woman to make the prestigious
list."
- ^
MADE L&C Pioneer
Awards
- ^ a
b
c
d
e
f
g
"Liz Claiborne". The Economist. July
5, 2007. http://www.economist.com/obituary/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9432832. Retrieved 2007-07-18.
"Almost every woman knows the feeling. You get into the lift, and a
very important woman in your office enters after you, talking to a
very important man. She is impeccable, from polished court shoes to
understated earrings. You are not. You are wearing trainers,
because you want to be comfortable on city pavements, and a blouse
that doesn't quite match the skirt because the one that matched
better was too grubby round the neck when you went to find it.
Nothing is ironed, and there is a faint stain on the skirt that is
yesterday's lunchtime soup ineffectually rubbed off with a
Kleenex."
- ^ a
b
c
Business Leader Profiles for Students. Ed. Sheila Dow. Vol. 1.
Detroit: Gale, 2002. p150-153. 2 vols. "Liz Claiborne"
- ^
"Liz Claiborne, Designer,
Dies at 78". New York Times. June 27, 2007. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/27/fashion/27cnd-claiborne.html?ex=1188014400&en=63233eb9f332b5c6&ei=5070. Retrieved 2007-07-21. "Liz
Claiborne, the designer of indefatigable career clothes for
professional women entering the workforce en masse beginning in the
1970s, died Tuesday in Manhattan. She was 78. Her death, at New
York-Presbyterian Hospital, was caused by complications of cancer,
said Arthur Ortenberg, her husband. Ms. Claiborne learned in 1997
that she had a rare form of cancer that affects the lining of the
abdomen."
- ^
"Sportswear designer Liz
Claiborne dead at 78". Reuters. June 27, 2007.
http://www.reuters.com/article/peopleNews/idUSN2730707620070627. Retrieved 2007-07-21.
"Apparel designer Liz Claiborne, who founded a namesake women's
sportswear label that grew into a multibillion dollar global
empire, has died at age 78, the company said on Wednesday.
Claiborne was ailing from cancer and died at New
York-Presbyterian Hospital on Tuesday, her assistant told
Reuters."
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