Liz Claiborne – A Designer and An Institute

liz claiborne - a designer and an institute

Liz Claiborne was born in Brussels, Belgium. She was daughter of a banker for the Morgan Guaranty Trust Company. The Claiborne family moved to New Orleans, where Liz received a strict Roman Catholic upbringing. At the age of 21, her sketch for a woman’s coat won a Harper’s Bazaar design competition, and she parlayed this success into a job in New York City’s garment district as a design assistant and model. From 1950 to 1955 she designed sportswear, tailored clothing, and high fashion, then from 1955 to 1960 she was a dress designer for the Dan Keller company; From 1960 through 1975, she worked as the principal designer for Youth Guild, the junior dress division of Jonathan Logan. Claiborne recognized a marketplace need for comfortable-yet-professional apparel for professional women.

Claiborne started her own company, Liz Claiborne, Inc., on January 19, 1976, and sales for the first year were more than $2 million. The Liz Claiborne label was known for its quality materials, comfortable fit, colors and fine tailoring, and went public in 1981. Over the next six years, Claiborne expanded her fashion lines to include petites, dresses, shoes, accessories, menswear, and perfume.