Art Ortenberg

Behind every great designer, there has always been a brilliant business partner who brings a balance of reality to creativity. Liz Claiborne met her perfect match in Art Ortenberg, a young garment industry executive from Newark, New Jersey, who hired her to design dresses in 1955 (after which both were quickly fired). Twenty years later, they created Liz Claiborne Inc., one of the most well-known fashion companies in the world, whose success enabled their many further adventures together. Liz Claiborne: The Legend, The Woman (Taylor Trade, April 2010) is the first book by Art, an avid reader and former trustee of the Library of Congress. He now resides in an apartment overlooking New York’s Central Park that he claims to share with Liz. His life is still dedicated to their environmental conservation foundation, The Liz Claiborne Art Ortenberg Foundation, their close friends, and a longing to sit on their special knoll at the Triple 8 Ranch in Canyon Creek, Montana.