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Her Forced Retirement

The New York Times, 8/13/08

Abstract:

The call came late at night on the first Monday of January, delivering the news that Sigrid Olsen had feared for six months. Liz Claiborne, Inc., after a review of its brands, was dismantling her 24-year-old fashion business, closing its 54 stores and laying off dozens of employees, including the designer herself.

Ms. Olsen, who spends much of the year at her longtime home here, began to call her staff in New York to explain what was happening in advance of a corporate announcement that would be made the next day. But what she could not explain was what had led to a demise of a peppy brand with a passionate customer base and peak sales of about $100 million, or why the sputtering Liz Claiborne conglomerate, which had entertained offers for Ms. Olsen's label and others, had not chosen just to sell it.

"I thought that we were one of the brands they would want to keep and nurture," Ms. Olsen said. "That was more shocking than anything."

It is a curious development in the fickle business of fashion that clothing labels like Ms. Olsen's, made by and for the baby boomer generation, are among those being hardest hit by the current economic turmoil and retail retrenchment. The restructuring of Liz Claiborne early this year also resulted in upheavals at more expensive labels: Ellen Tracy, which was sold; and Dana Buchman, which was pulled from department stores and will be remade more moderately for Kohl's. At the same time, retailers like Ann Taylor, Talbots and J. Jill have been closing hundreds of stores over the last decade has left many malls with more vacancies than options for the enormous demographic of women in their 40s to 60s.

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