You, too, can Learn from the Fashion Lady

Ode to Liz (1929 -2007)

Liz Claiborne, one of America’s most influential fashion designers, “died yesterday in New York City”:http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/28/business/28claiborne.html?ex=1340683200&en=abbb7dc04be084b0&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss after a long fight with cancer. “Ms. Claiborne”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liz_Claiborne_%28fashion_designer%29 might not be the best-known entrepreneur to the Found|READ community, especially to those of us who toil away in technology. But even geeks might recognize her mug for that “iconic large-rimmed eyewear”:http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/liz_claiborne/index.html?inline=nyt-per (often they were even red)—a fashion statement which, for the first time, gave non-rock stars permission to get chic in their bottle-bottoms, too. (All of you tony and metrosexual coders might still be wearing horn-rimmed specs if it weren’t for Lady Liz. Thank you, dear!)

And before you think we’re writing this just to be cute, it demands noting today that Liz Claiborne was more than a fashion diva. She was a trailblazing businesswoman, not merely because she turned the fashion industry on its ear in the 1970’s and 1980’s by giving this country’s first generation of career women workwear that was stlylish and affordable—something women had not needed before then. We call this innovation today, and succeeding generations of professional women owe her a debt of gratitude. So do multi-billion-dollar fashion houses like, “Gap, Inc.”:http://www.gapinc.com/public/OurBrands/brands_br.shtml, which grew its juggernaut off the concept of “workplace fashion.”

More than any of this, “Liz Claiborne Inc.”:http://www.lizclaiborneinc.com/company/history.htm, the public company Claiborne co-founded in 1976, was the 1st Female-Founded enterprise to make the “Fortune 500”:http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2007/, the totemic business magazine’s list of most important companies in American industry.

Stop for a moment and ponder the significance of this accomplishment: How many startups will ever go public, much less gain entry to the Fortune 500? The numbers were fewer in the 1980’s, and hers was the first hers to achieve this at all.

As is the case with most founders, success didn’t come easily to Claiborne and her cofounders, and you can read more about “here.”:http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/28/business/28claiborne.html?ex=1340683200&en=abbb7dc04be084b0&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
She was a founder with moxy and guts—qualities we revere today in our entrepreneurs. But in Claiborne’s early days, such attributes which were not always rewarded in entrepreneurs of her sex.

Claiborne died today at the grand age of 78. Our hat is off to her. And let this be a reminder to those of us who get bogged down in the tech industry’s fable of “binary greatness”: we are all in business today, for one reason or another, because of the people who came before us. Honor them whenever you have the chance. After all, inspiration is everywhere, sometimes even behind the lenses of a BIG, red set of eyewear.

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Adam Benayoun
(114 points)
June 28, 12:06 am

Clairborne will be always remembered for the fact she is a brand. This is a great accomplishment to be a brand [in a high competing field such as fashion].
Rest in piece, you’ve changed the world.

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