Anne Elisabeth Jane Claiborne (March 31, 1929 – June 26, 2007) was an American

fashion designer Fashion is a form of self-expression and autonomy at a particular period and place and in a specific context, of clothing, footwear, lifestyle, accessories, makeup, hairstyle, and body posture. The term implies a look defined by the fashion in ...

and businesswoman. Her success was built upon stylish yet affordable apparel for career women featuring colorfully tailored separates that could be mixed and matched. Claiborne is best known for co-founding Liz Claiborne Inc., which in 1986 became the first company founded by a woman to make the

Fortune 500 The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes publicly held companies, along ...

list. Claiborne was the first woman to become

chair A chair is a type of seat, typically designed for one person and consisting of one or more legs, a flat or slightly angled seat and a back-rest. They may be made of wood, metal, or synthetic materials, and may be padded or upholstered in vario ...

and

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

of a

company.

Early life and education

Claiborne was born in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

to American parents. She came from a prominent

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

family with an ancestor,

William C. C. Claiborne William Charles Cole Claiborne ( 1773–1775 – November 23, 1817) was an American politician, best known as the first non-colonial governor of Louisiana. He also has the distinction of possibly being the youngest member of the United State ...

, who served as Louisiana's first governor after statehood, during the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...

. In 1939, at the start of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the family returned to

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

. Claiborne attended St. Timothy's School for Girls, a small boarding school in

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

. She and her sisters attended

Mountain Lakes High School Mountain Lakes High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school that serves students in ninth through twelfth grade from Mountain Lakes, in Morris County, New Jersey, United States, operating as the lone secondary school of the Mou ...

Mountain Lakes, New Jersey Mountain Lakes is a borough in Morris County, New Jersey, United States, and a suburb of New York City. As of the 2010 United States census, the borough's population was 4,160, Her father did not believe that she needed an education, so she studied art informally.

Career

In 1949, Claiborne won the

Jacques Heim Jacques Heim (8 May 1899 – 8 January 1967) was a French fashion designer and costume designer for theater and film, and was a manufacturer of women's furs. From 1930 to his death in 1967, he ran the fashion house (''maison de couture'') ''Ja ...

National Design Contest (sponsored by ''

Harper's Bazaar ''Harper's Bazaar'' is an American monthly women's fashion magazine. It was first published in New York City on November 2, 1867, as the weekly ''Harper's Bazar''. ''Harper's Bazaar'' is published by Hearst and considers itself to be the st ...

''), and then moved to

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

where she worked for years in the Garment District on Seventh Avenue, as a sketch artist at Tina Leser, the

sportswear Sportswear or activewear is clothing, including footwear, worn for sport or physical exercise. Sport-specific clothing is worn for most sports and physical exercise, for practical, comfort or safety reasons. Typical sport-specific garments ...

producer. She also worked for the former Hollywood costume designer-turned-fashion designer,

Omar Kiam Alexander "Omar" Kiam (1894 – 1954) was an American fashion designer and costume designer. Early life Born Alexander Kiam in Monterrey, Mexico, to Texan parents. Kiam picked up the nickname "Omar" at Riverview Preparatory School in Poughkeep ...

. She worked as a designer for the Dan Keller and Youth Group Inc. fashion labels.

Liz Claiborne Inc.

Claiborne became frustrated by the failure of the companies that employed her to provide practical clothes for working women, so, with husband Art Ortenberg, Leonard Boxer, and Jerome Chazen, she launched 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. By 1988, it had acquired one-third of the American women's upscale

market. Marketing strategies that Claiborne developed changed the nature of retail stores. For example, Claiborne insisted that her line of clothing be displayed separately, as a department to itself and including all of the items she offered. This was the first time customers were able to select many types of clothing articles by brand name alone in one location of a department store. That tradition for the grouping of special brands has become the typical arrangement for name brands in contemporary stores. In 1980, Liz Claiborne Accessories was founded through employee Nina McLemore (who decades later would launch a label of her own, in 2001). Liz Claiborne Inc. went public in 1981 and made the Fortune 500 list in 1986 with retail sales of $1.2 billion. Claiborne listed all employees in her corporate directory in alphabetical order, to circumvent what she perceived as male hierarchies. She controlled meetings by ringing a glass

bell A bell is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be made by an inter ...

and became famous for her love of red—"Liz Red". She sometimes would pose as a saleswoman to see what average women thought of her clothes.

Personal life, retirement, and death

Claiborne's first marriage was to Ben Shultz; it ended in divorce in 1954, after she met Arthur Ortenberg. In 1957, she and her now co-worker, Arthur (1926 - 2014) married. She had a son from her first marriage, Alexander G. Shultz, and two stepchildren from her second marriage, Neil Ortenberg and Nancy Ortenberg. Claiborne retired from active management in 1989. By that stage, she had acquired other companies, notably

Kayser-Roth Kayser-Roth Corporation (a subsidiary of ) is an underwear and hosiery manufacturer based in Greensboro, North Carolina. The company currently markets three owned brands in North America, No Nonsense, Hue and Burlington. History Julius Kayser & ...

, which produced Liz Claiborne accessories. Her husband retired at the same time, leaving the other founders as the active managers. In retirement, Claiborne and Ortenberg established a foundation that distributed millions in funding to environmental causes, including funding the

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite television, satellite, or cable television, cable, excluding breaking news, television adverti ...

''Nature'' on

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

and nature conservancy projects around the world. She received an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the

Rhode Island School of Design The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase the ...

. Claiborne had been advised in May 1997 that she had a rare form of cancer affecting the lining of the

abdomen The abdomen (colloquially called the belly, tummy, midriff, tucky or stomach) is the part of the body between the thorax (chest) and pelvis, in humans and in other vertebrates. The abdomen is the front part of the abdominal segment of the torso. ...

. She died of the cancer on June 26, 2007, at the age of 78.

Awards and honors

*1990 - National Business Hall of Fame, sponsored by Junior Achievement *1991 - National Sales Hall of Fame *1991 - Honorary Doctorate from the Rhode Island School of Design *1993 - Golden Plate Award of the

American Academy of Achievement The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a non-profit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest achieving individuals in diverse fields and gives them the opportunity to meet o ...

*2000 - Council of Fashion Designers of America Lifetime Achievement Award

References

External links

Liz Claiborne WebsiteLiz Claiborne Art Ortenberg Foundation
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Claiborne, Liz (Fashion Designer) 1929 births 2007 deaths American fashion designers American women chief executives American chief executives of fashion industry companies Artists from New Orleans Belgian emigrants to the United States Businesspeople from Louisiana Businesspeople from New York (state) Deaths from cancer in New York (state) Claiborne family Deaths from stomach cancer Mountain Lakes High School alumni People from Fire Island, New York 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American businesswomen American women fashion designers Belgian people of American descent 21st-century American women