"I was very proud when the name was all over the place. [Now] it's like a poor stepchild," she said last year. "My only ill feeling is what happened to the name, and that part of their philosophy was to make that a very small portion. The goods got so cheap-looking and unappetizing."

Claiborne felt it wasn't possible to build the kind of company today that she and her husband created in the late Seventies and Eighties.

"They can't do it on a shoestring the way we did it," she said last year. "There doesn't seem to be a mind-set for it. Designers don't have the proper partners. First of all, you should have three other partners. I don't know anything about finance. I hate selling. I know how to sew, but don't know production. I don't know how to structure a company. If you have three other partners who are very good at their jobs, it's a leg up."

Paul Charron, former chairman and ceo of Claiborne, who retired last year and was succeeded by William L. McComb, said, "Liz was a pioneer and a visionary. She was a designer who fundamentally changed the way American women dress.

"She was so beautiful she would literally light up a room. You could just feel her energy. Even though I never worked with her, Liz's ways were always instrumental in my decision-making while I was there. I don't know another woman like her. Even though she, Art and Jerry disagreed on some of my decisions, they were always supportive and I always knew they had my back. She truly showed women that they could be successful in business," Charron added.

Dana Buchman, who was a protégé of Claiborne's, said, "Liz was always about the clothes. She believed in the design, fit and comfort of a garment and really didn't care about what the department stores were demanding. What the designers thought was important, and we always worked as a team. She was gracious and generous, not about politics or drama. The only thing she cared about was creating great, beautiful clothes for the American woman. This was her mission. She created a great company, a dream company.