Fashion Obit: Liz Claiborne
Liz Claiborne died last week. She was the first woman CEO and chair of a Fortune 500 firm. She was the American designer who dressed middle-class women as they entered the white-collar workforce in the 1970s, basing her designs on what she would wear to work. She mixed up color combinations and designed work clothes that weren’t lady-ized versions of men’s suits.
Reading her obituary in Women’s Wear Daily, I learned that the Liz Claiborne group, which she founded with her husband and two other partners in the 1970s, is now a $4.99 billion firm with more than 40 labels in its portfolio, including Juicy Couture, Lucky Brand and Kate Spade.
My relationship with Liz began in the ’80s. My junior high school measure for “Am I Hot Or Not?” was carrying a Liz Clairborne purse. Mine was hot pink and had little triangles stamped into the plastic fabric. It had a blond leather shoulder strap and insignia triangle. It probably cost about $40 and was my first upscale handbag.
Later on, when I became a high school temptress and started wearing perfume, my scent was Liz Claiborne Realities. It is sweet sweet cotton candy with a hint of musk and green grass. The mother of one of my boyfriends always knew when I’d been ’round because she could smell my perfume in her house.