Fashion designer Liz Claiborne revolutionized the way working women put together their wardrobes because she was one of them. She made it easy for them as they pioneered up corporate ladders in the 1970s and 1980s, offering coordinated outfits at once serious and stylish, but also affordable. Claiborne died Tuesday at the New York Presbyterian Hospital after suffering from cancer for a number of years, said Gwen Satterfield, personal assistant to Claiborne. She was 78.

With husband Art Ortenberg and partners ...