Fashion designer Liz Claiborne was born on March 31, 1929, in Brussels, Belgium. She grew up in New Orleans and Louisiana in the United States, and began her career as a fashion designer in the 1950s. She married Arthur Ortenberg in 1957, and together they founded their own brand, Liz Claiborne, in 1976. Their highly practical collections aimed at career women quickly became popular. She launched a dress line in 1982, a menswear line in 1985, and a cosmetics division in 1988. Liz Claiborne was the first woman-founded company to be named to the Fortune 500, an annual ranking of US publicly traded companies by sales, published by FORTUNE magazine. The couple retired from running the brand in 1989.

After Liz passed away on June 26, 2007, Deborah Lloyd, Isaac Mizrahi, and John Bartlett took over as creative directors and continued to run the brand.