Isaac Mizrahi is ending his seven-year partnership with Target to become creative director at Liz Claiborne. Mizrahi has been credited with restoring credibility to Target and sales have doubled every year since the launch of his line in 2003. Mizrahi's own design house closed in 1998 but as well as his collections for Target he designed a high-end line for Bergdorf Goodman which he will continue to work on.
Before she died in June Claiborne told WWD: "I wanted to dress busy and active women like myself — women who dress in a rush and who weren't perfect," The brand has lost some of its idendity in the two decades since Claiborne stopped working at the company, hopefully Mizrahi's debut collection in Spring 2009 will restore some of the brand's core values.
Mizrahi himself released a statement about the new position: "Liz Claiborne is an American fashion icon. Her clothes were not only beautiful, not only smart, they were revolutionary. She invented separates, and invented an entirely new category in the department store. She made fashion friendly and accessible, and in doing so, she became every woman's best friend. These are all ideas I treasure and I'm honored to have the opportunity to build on this fantastic legacy and excited to reestablish the label as a must-have. And, as excited as I am about developing Liz Claiborne, the collaboration also affords fantastic opportunities for growth in my own brand,"