Liz Claiborne Dies at 78

Liz Claiborne, founder of one of the world’s most successful clothing companies, died from complications of cancer Tuesday. After working behind the scenes in the sportswear industry for 20 years, Claiborne became a superstar in the male-dominated fashion world of the 1970s by creating professional clothing for the legions of women entering the work force during that era. The Liz Claiborne company was the first business founded by a woman to make the Fortune 500 list, and when the designer retired in 1990 she did so as the number one maker of women’s apparel with $1.4 billion in sales.

Here’s a great Claiborne quote from a 1989 interview with Women’s Wear Daily:

I wanted to dress busy and active women like myself, women who dress in a rush and who weren’t perfect. But loving clothes, I knew clothes could do a certain thing for you from a flattering point of view. And I tried to bring good taste to a mass level.