Liz Claiborne Inc.
Claiborne, frustrated at the failure of the companies that she worked for to provide clothes for working women, started her own design company, Liz Claiborne Inc., in 1976. It was an immediate success with sales of $2 million in 1976 and $23 million in 1978. By 1988 it had acquired one-third of the American women's upscale sportswear market.
In 1980, Liz Claiborne Accessories was founded by Nina McLemore. Liz Claiborne Inc. went public in 1981 and made the Fortune 500 in 1986 with retail sales of $1.2 billion.
Claiborne listed all employees in the directory in alphabetical order to circumvent what she perceived as male hierarchies. She controlled meetings by ringing a glass bell and became famous for her love of red-- "Liz Red." She would sometimes pose as a saleswoman to see what average women thought of her clothes.
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