Liz Claiborne

Anne Elisabeth Jane Claiborne (March 31, 1929 – June 26, 2007) was an American fashion designer 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 co-founded Liz Claiborne Inc., which in 1986 became the first company founded by a woman to make the Fortune 500 list. Claiborne was the first woman to become chair and CEO of a Fortune 500 company.

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, who served as Louisiana's first governor after statehood, during the War of 1812.

Rather than finishing high school, Claiborne went to Europe to study art in the studios of painters. Her father did not believe that she needed an education, so she studied art informally. and then moved to Manhattan where she worked for years in the Garment District on Seventh Avenue, 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.

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. In 1957, she and her then 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. 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 2000 - Council of Fashion Designers of America Lifetime Achievement Award