Liz Claiborne (fashion designer)
| Liz Claiborne | |
|---|---|
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| Born |
Anne Elisabeth Jane Claiborne March 31, 1929 Brussels, Belgium |
| Died | June 26, 2007 (aged 78) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Fashion designer |
| Labels | Liz Claiborne |
Anne Elisabeth Jane "Liz" Claiborne (March 31, 1929 – June 26, 2007) was a Belgian-born 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 is best known for co-founding 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.
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.
In 1939, at the start of World War II, the family returned to New Orleans. Claiborne attended St. Timothy's, a boarding school then in Catonsville, Maryland, and currently in Stevenson, Maryland.
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.
In 1949, Claiborne won the Jacques Heim National Design Contest (sponsored by Harper's Bazaar), and then moved to Manhattan where she worked for years in the Garment District on Seventh Avenue, as a sketch artist at the sportswear house, Tina Leser. She also worked for the former Hollywood costume designer turned fashion designer, Omar Kiam. She worked as a designer for Dan Keller and Youth Group Inc.
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