After spending 25 years in the fashion business, Liz Claiborne became an overnight success when she opened her own dress company in 1976. By the time she and husband Arthur Ortenberg retired in 1989, their dress company had grown into a fashion colossus that included clothing for men and children as well as accessories, shoes, fragrances, and retail stores. Claiborne successfully combined an emphasis on sensible dresses with a keen intuition for the professional woman's desire to appear sophisticated and dressed up at the office. Her sensibility to what people want in fashion carried over into a successful sportswear line. Her genius as a fashion designer was highlighted by the fact that Claiborne was one of most stable fashion companies on the New York Stock Exchange, serving as a model for publicly-owned fashion companies until it faltered in the 1990s.

Further Reading:

Klensch, Elsa. "Dressing America: The Success of Liz Claiborne."Vogue. August, 1986.

"Liz Claiborne." Current Biography. June, 1989.