Liz Claiborne
http://brandhabit.com/designer/4990-Liz-Claiborne
Liz Claiborne
brandhabit's interview with
Liz Claiborne

In 1976, a relatively unknown dress designer, her textile veteran husband and two partners established, Liz Claiborne Inc., a design-driven company that would revolutionize the fashion industry - from how women dress for work, to where product is sourced, to how it is sold into and at department stores. With less than half a million dollars and a clear focus on design, quality and value, these four partners - Liz Claiborne, Art Ortenberg, Leonard Boxer and Jerome Chazen - created what is now a nearly $5 billion public company.

Dressing Women for Work
Established at a time when women were entering the workforce in large numbers, Liz Claiborne and her partners saw the opportunity to provide versatile, fashionable wardrobes that were appropriate for work, but still conveyed a sense of individuality and femininity. A working woman herself, Liz understood how liberating it would be to mix and match separates rather than have to rely on the traditional dress or gray flannel suit. Thus, out of a small office on 40th street in Manhattan, Liz Claiborne the brand was born, transforming the way women dressed and ultimately, how they shopped.

The concept was simple: Provide the ensemble driven sportswear that had been available for many years at designer level prices through the likes of Calvin Klein and Bill Blass, but make it affordable for the working woman.

There was a major stumbling block, however. Up until this point, department stores were by and large classification oriented - pants were in one department, skirts in another and shirts in yet another. To put together a wardrobe a consumer had to go from department to department and hope that the colors and pieces would match. Additionally, department store buyers were classification-focused and were not equipped to buy merchandise from one brand across product lines.

To overcome this, Liz Claiborne executives worked with retailers to test the concept of presenting all of the brand's related sportswear pieces in one department, streamlining the consumer'
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