How Liz Lange Changed Maternity Wear Forever and Redefined Motherhood in Fashion
In this episode of Mom to MORE®, Sharon Macey welcomes fashion powerhouse Liz Lange, the woman who redefined maternity wear. What began with eight simple pieces and a $25,000 loan, grew into the largest maternity apparel brand in the United States, complete with celebrity clients and major partnerships with Target and Nike.
Behind the success were defining personal chapters. Liz shares what it was like to host a fashion show on the morning of September 11th 2001, face a cervical cancer diagnosis at 34 while raising toddlers, and wrestle with the reality that building a booming business often meant missing moments at home.
Tune in for an honest conversation about ambition, reinvention, resilience, and learning when to build boldly and when to step back for what matters most.
[00:00] Introduction
[04:00] Seeing the gap in maternity fashion
[08:43] Starting with 25,000 dollars and building by word of mouth
[15:40] A fashion show on the morning of 9/11
[19:21] A cancer diagnosis while raising young children
[24:17] What motherhood taught Liz about leadership and flexibility
[27:46] The myth of having it all at the same time
[29:41] The tension between ambition and being present at home
[30:00] Selling the company and choosing family
[33:20] “Liz Lange Isn’t Who You Think She Is”
[35:54] Advice for moms dreaming about their next chapter
Meet my guest, Liz Lange:
Instagram: @lizlangeofficial
Podcast: The Just Enough Family
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Keep an eye out for episode #58 of the Mom to MORE® podcast where Sharon is joined by Rhea Lana Riner, CEO of Rhea Lana’s Children’s Consignment Events. Coming soon - you won’t want to miss it ♥
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Sharon Macey (00:39)
Welcome back to a new episode of Mom to More. I am so excited to speak with my guest today and it is a bit of a full circle moment for me. When I was pregnant with our youngest daughter, I lived in Liz Lang maternity. It was the first time that maternity felt chic and flattering and for all the moms of a certain age.
out there, this was nothing short of revolutionary. I mean, imagine bringing body conscious designs to women at every stage of pregnancy. It was amazing. My guest, the indomitable Liz Lang, didn't just design maternity clothes. She reshaped how we felt about ourselves during one of the biggest transitions in our lives with her namesake brand, Liz Lang Maternity in the late 1990s. She's an entrepreneur.
author and podcast host, and one of the most influential women in American fashion. She was also the very first designer to dress a host of pregnant A-listers. Yes, Liz started that trend. A true retail pioneer, Liz went on to launch major collaborations with Nike, Target, and HSN, helping bring designer style to millions of women. Today, she's the CEO and creative director of Fig, a New York-based luxury resort wear brand known for its breezy silhouettes,
chirpy embellishments and produced by artisans all over the planet. Liz has been recognized with many awards throughout her career, including Crane's Rising Star Award, Time Magazine's The Most Powerful Entrepreneurs, and she's appeared on Oprah, CNBC, and Bloomberg, profiled in major publications like The Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business View, Inhale, just to name a few. She recently brought her family's history to life through the hit Sony podcast, The Just Enough Family, providing a fascinating peek
into her family's story and her own reinvention along the way. It is an
Liz continues to champion women building stylish, bold, new chapters of their own. I am so excited to speak to this incredible mom. Welcome to Mom2More Liz Lang.
Liz Lange (02:41)
Thank you so much. That introduction was so nice. Thank you
Sharon Macey (02:45)
You are so welcome. I'm thrilled to talk to you today. And there's a gazillion questions I want to ask you. So let's just dive in here. OK, I want to point out also
actually did the reverse of the typical stay at home mom journey. You were a full time working mom first and then made the conscious choice to dial it back and spend more time with your kids, which we will dive into a little later. But first, how many kids do you have and where did you raise them?
Liz Lange (03:11)
I have two children. have a 27-year-old son and a 25-year-old daughter. I raised them on the Upper East Side of New York City, which is where I myself had grown up and been raised. So, you know, I continued very familiar path.
Sharon Macey (03:24)
So you are also empty nester as are we. Isn't it nice? ⁓ I know, in mixed emotions, yeah.
Liz Lange (03:27)
I am exactly. You know, it's mixed. find it mixed. But as
you said, I missed so many years. So I feel like, you know, I didn't have as many years,
mixed.
Sharon Macey (03:38)
Right.
So let's turn back the clock. You started Liz Lang maternity before you were even pregnant, sketching designs in the middle of the night because you just knew that you were onto something.
take us back to the birth of Liz Lang maternity, pun intended. What was it about the idea that gripped you so completely and how did you keep pushing forward when everyone was saying, forget it?
Liz Lange (04:00)
Well, I'll start by saying, I think that like every entrepreneur that I've now spoken to so many since this all happened has that same experience. There must be something in us that allows us to push forward ⁓ in the face of a lot of negativity, because that is what every entrepreneur faces. For some reason, no one is ever open to a new idea. Nobody ever thinks a new idea, even if it's a solving a problem that others have, is a good idea. I can't tell you why, but that just seems to be a fact.
So I must be very, very, very sort of,
hardwired to be very optimistic and very kind of, you know, just go for it anyway. I don't know the answer to that part of the question. It's a mindset that I didn't know I had, but I must have. Some of us are just wired for it. I must have been, but I didn't know that. So I got the idea.
Sharon Macey (04:35)
That's a mindset. That's a total mindset. And yeah.
Liz Lange (04:45)
Because as you said, I wasn't yet pregnant, but I was thinking about it. Like I was newly married, my friends were newly married. I was in that moment. Sounds like you were too. All the moms that I know today were in that moment back then.
I was in the fashion industry, but not really, not a designer. I went to Brown University and I majored in comparative literature. I'm not a designer.
But I was working with this fashion designer and I liked fashion a lot. But again, more like, you know, lots of us women like fashion and shopping and it was a fun first job. wasn't like I was, you know, nothing special about what I was doing that was
Sharon Macey (05:12)
Sure.
Liz Lange (05:17)
uniquely like design oriented. But anyway, long story short, friends were getting pregnant.
They didn't all know each other, but they all had me in common. They would all tell me that they couldn't find a thing to wear. I noticed they were all spending so much money because many of them, we were young, so we were slightly lower down on the totem pole of our jobs, had to be in the office every day. mean, the word COVID or out of office or four-day work week, these things didn't exist in the 90s and thousands. Nobody knew about this. So, you had to dress a certain way.
Sharon Macey (05:42)
didn't exist.
Liz Lange (05:47)
And so people were just spending all this money. And I noticed in addition to spending all this money, that they were buying things that they were a little bit more tailored, a little bit more fitted. They weren't going out and buying a tent dress. So I had this aha moment of my friends look better and feel better and things that are more fitted. My friends can't find anything to wear even at the traditional maternity shops. And even if they were women who I didn't consider to be big shoppers prior to being pregnant,
They're all shopping now because they have no choice. So whether you like to shop, don't like to shop, it didn't seem to matter. Everybody was spending money. So I thought, my God, this is like an amazing idea. And I said to the designer I was working for, who was a designer, who was struggling,
I wasn't thinking for myself. I said, I have this great idea of how to turn around your business. Let's just add the word maternity to your label. Like, you we won't change anything about it because everything's kind of fitted, but
Again, this is sort of in the weeds, but in the 90s, stretch fabrications were new. So I was like, we'll just make things using stretch fabrications and we'll just keep the silhouettes the same. And I think all my friends and people will start buying it as maternity clothing. And he basically was like, you know, there's nothing glamorous about that. you smoking crack? What are you thinking? No, absolutely not. And then, you know, I was kind of plucky and still kind of thought it was a good idea. And I was young enough to still be very optimistic. So I trotted off to like, you know, Bergdorf Goodman, which was in my neighborhood.
Sharon Macey (07:00)
Ha
Liz Lange (07:12)
And said, what do you think? Like,
shouldn't you sell designer maternity clothes here? So you don't have to lose your customers for, you know, a full year. And they also were like, you know, listen, lady, I don't know what you're smoking, but women don't. Yes. So crazy. So obvious.
Sharon Macey (07:23)
which is so crazy because it's a huge market.
Liz Lange (07:28)
I was like, ⁓ you know, really? Like, are you sure they were like, women don't care what they look like when they're pregnant. They don't care. was thinking, yeah, they.
do. Of course they care. So, but I just sort of like filed it away, but
it's what you said. I couldn't stop thinking about it. just, was what it like grasped, like grabbed me. Who would have ever thought? Like if you had asked me that as a young girl, like it just, I couldn't stop thinking about it. Finally, I said to the designer I was working for, I know this is weird, but I think I have to try to do this. I just think I have to. And then because none of the stores understood it and wanted it, I was sort of forced into being a retailer too.
So I ended up like having to sell it too, because I was kind of like, okay, if you store can't understand it, well then nothing, I think women can understand it. So I don't need you in between me and let's say Sharon. Like if I could just tell Sharon, Sharon, I heard you're pregnant. That's what I would do. Like let's say you and I knew someone in common. I would say to my friend, tell Sharon that I'm selling maternity clothes up in this little office I created. And she can come see me by appointment, because I had to do everything by appointment because I didn't have any sales help. So.
needed to know when to be there. And I would make a few things made to order.
I kind of thought women are the best networkers. don't need the money for advertising. I don't need anything. Women will tell other women during this like crucial time in their life.
Sharon Macey (08:43)
Yeah.
So in addition to the women's networks, which is so important, especially now, I think that's something that,
as the as the female village, it's just innate in who we are. But what was so interesting about what you just said, Liz, is at that time.
know, maternity was anything but chic, but it was, I mean, was dowdy, it was icky. But when you look at what was happening in the fashion world, it was ruled by Calvin Klein and Alexander McQueen and Tom Ford, which was this total fashion disconnect.
what was your take on that gap?
I assume that when you got pregnant, you just wore all of your own clothes.
Liz Lange (09:19)
Yes, of
Honestly, that was part of my hesitation. It wasn't just Tom Ford and Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren. It was some of the female designers, let's say like Donna Karan. was huge then. I thought, honestly, this must not be good idea because if this were good idea, some of these very powerful
design houses and for some reason I kept thinking of Donna Karen. They'd be doing it. Donna Karen was what a ton of my friends were buying because she would make these kind of stretchy easy pieces. Some of them were cashmere. They were a fortune. But my friends were like, listen, I know I don't normally spend like this, but nothing works, nothing fits.
So yeah, I thought it was strange. I don't know what to make of it, but I think that that's also just like, that's just the way the world, would be no room for young and new ideas and entrepreneurs, which we've seen like such a huge proliferation of if they sort of big companies did see all the holes in the market. Somehow they don't. I don't know how to explain it. You don't.
Sharon Macey (10:11)
takes a female
entrepreneur to see those holes in the market.
Liz Lange (10:14)
I don't know about that. just think sometimes someone just sees something differently or just, was lucky a lot of different information was coming at once that kind of clicked for me.
Sharon Macey (10:22)
Fantastic. I just love the origin story of that.
what's also interesting is you came from a fascinating
where a certain kind of life was expected of you. So can you talk about what was supposed to happen versus the life you actually built for yourself? And also,
Who was your initial backer for Liz Lang maternity? Yeah.
Liz Lange (10:43)
Right. that
was all, that's part of it. Like sometimes when I speak to entrepreneurs and they'll say, ⁓ that must've been so brave of you. It's so brave to take the leap and leave a job and, you know, start something. So I always like to
just say right off the bat. It really wasn't that brave. The truth of the matter is, first of all, when you're in your twenties, no matter what, like it's not that, that brave. didn't, at that point, I didn't have a family to support. I was married. My husband did have a job. ⁓ So it was like nothing terrible was going to happen if I
If I tried to start Liz Lang maternity and it didn't work
but also to your point. So I came from this kind of very unusual background. And I always say again, right from the start, spoiler alert, we lost the money. Cause I wouldn't just be sitting here bragging about like, we're so rich. That was then this is now. So I grew up in a extraordinarily publicly wealthy family because you know, major fortunes are public.
a Forbes 400 name brand family where
You know, I never thought for a minute, never in a billion years that would, that money would be anything that I had to think about or worry about. And as a matter of fact, again, I cared a lot. mean, I, I went to Brown. was, I was certainly like as somebody, I was a very much of a, a thinking person, but I really wasn't thinking necessarily that I needed to have a career or that I'd want to have a career. Like it was, you know, again, I'm, I'm 59. Like it wasn't a hundred percent that every woman worked. And so I kind of thought for most of my life.
that once I had my children, probably wouldn't work. I would raise them, which I still think is an incredible thing to do.
And when I started Liz Lyne Maternity, we still had the money.
I went to my father and I had this idea and he liked so many others. He wasn't unique. He didn't think it was a particularly good idea. Like nobody did. He wasn't, he was really nice about it, but I don't think he was thinking like, wow, this is going to be.
Sharon Macey (12:24)
What do
the guys know?
Liz Lange (12:26)
Nobody knows, but women
didn't know. Just so you know, I went to my pregnant friends, the ones that were complaining to me that were spending all this money on the Donna Karen and Calvin Klein and saying, I could barely get through this pregnancy, I have nothing to wear. And I said, I have a great idea. I'm going to make some clothing. It's going to be expensive. It's not going to be as expensive as Calvin Klein and Donna Karen, but it's not going to be cheap. Isn't that great news? And they were like, nah, you know, we don't need it. We get by. So nobody thought it was a good idea. However, so my dad...
Sharon Macey (12:50)
interesting, yeah.
Liz Lange (12:52)
didn't think it was a particularly good idea, but we were very close and a very, very, very good father. And he said, I will lend you some money to start this. But if it doesn't take off, I think he said within three months, if you're not paying your own bills, then it's just a hobby and I'm not gonna fund your hobby.
So I didn't have a business plan. I don't, barely believe in them,
I kept my cost down and in the end, I think my dad had paid for about $25,000 worth of bills, which is not nothing and this was 1997, not calling it nothing at all. But it wasn't like today's entrepreneurs with like, I mean, I will say that I started with 25,000 from him. I was self-sufficient easily within three months. And when I sold the brand 10 years later to private equity,
We were the largest maternity apparel brand in the United States. So it was a major growth from the 25,000. You know, we had hundreds of millions of dollars in sales at that point.
I had no expenses. I rented a very inexpensive office that did not have a window on the street. I didn't have any employees. I had an answering machine. There were no real computers back then. I had a fax and an answering machine and I did everything made to order. I did not invest in inventory. So if you came to see me, you saw a little sample line of like eight, what I called eight easy pieces and you could choose your color and the colors were black.
Navy and chocolate brown, because that's what I thought you needed, this little capsule wardrobe. then it was so, yeah, was so New York, was so 90s and it was very clean. And the idea was if you, whatever you could try on, small, medium or large, whatever, and then I would make it for you. I'd fax my factory, they were local. I would fax them and two weeks later I would drop them off for you. If you didn't live in New York, you really couldn't shop with me
Sharon Macey (14:19)
That's so New York.
Liz Lange (14:39)
what really amazed me was pretty soon, like people were like flying in from all over the world. I mean, I ended up opening up stores and having an internet site and a catalog and all those other things. But at the beginning, the first year people started saying, no, no, we're going to fly to New York. I've got to see this clothing, which like completely blew my mind.
Sharon Macey (14:55)
I love that, very bespoke. And I remember the stores. mean, again, I said I lived in Lis Lang. It was just so refreshing to be able to have clothing that fit appropriately and it looked good and it was chic and it was fashion forward and it checked all the boxes. So here you are, you're building this brand. You've got, I think it was three stores in New York. By the end of three
Liz Lange (14:57)
Yes.
Yeah.
By the end I had three stores,
Sharon Macey (15:16)
People are flying in from everywhere to wear your clothing.
And you've also spoken about the very surreal period of time around September 11th. Your first fashion show was literally happening that morning and everything changed in an instant. And then you also faced a cancer diagnosis while you're raising kids and running a business. I mean, like mind blowing right off the bat, reflect on that for a moment.
Liz Lange (15:40)
It was crazy.
Yeah.
Sharon Macey (15:47)
crazy and overwhelming, I think would be an understatement.
what did that chapter sort of teach you about resilience and sort of redefining strength?
Liz Lange (15:56)
Well, know, everything,
was quite unexpected. So as you said, first of all, in 2001, my business was at kind of an all time high. Like I'd started in 97 and we had grown very quickly and I found myself all of a sudden with this big store on Madison Avenue, another store on Long Island, another store on Beverly Hills. I had a huge celebrity clientele
I basically felt like if you were pregnant during that time period, you were my customer.
I was just a very, very, very big brand and admittedly a high-end brand. But if you were spending at all, if you were somebody of a certain income bracket, you wore Liz Lang and you probably wore nothing else during her pregnancy.
I was getting a crazy amount of press because back then, I don't know, press was different and it meant more. So was on all these TV shows and I was in People magazine. It was a whirlwind time for me. I had a three-year-old and a one-year-old and I thought like,
pinch me, like everything's incredible. In addition, I hadn't announced it yet, but I had been approached first by Target to take over their entire maternity department at every single Target location to do Liz Lang for Target, a less expensive line, much less expensive. And I was going to announce that. And I also had been approached by Nike to do Liz Lang for Swoosh, a ⁓ line of maternity active apparel for Nike.
So that was like, this was like huge. Then I thought to myself,
I'm going to do a fashion show. I'm to do a real fashion show during fashion week in the tents in New York City, which is a huge thing.
There had never been one before. So this was very, very exciting. I was working around the clock on it all summer because my fashion show date, as you said, was September 11th. That is always fashion week, 9.30 in the morning.
So this was my moment. Not only was I having this fashion show, but I was going to tell the press who were all coming to that fashion show, was packed show,
that's where I was going to announce the Target and the Nike deal because I was going to show some of the designs for that too. And then everyone was going to understand that that's what we were doing because it had the logos on it and all their executives were in town. And it was just like this indescribable moment for me. Like everything, was a pinnacle. Like I couldn't.
Sharon Macey (17:59)
It's like you've reached the pinnacle. mean, you did it.
Liz Lange (18:03)
in my mind, things could not get any better. And so, know, then yes. So then sort of perestroika. First of all, in the middle of my show, all the TV camera crews, CNN, Good Morning America, the Today Show, they all start running out of the show. I have no idea why information didn't travel that fast back then. We had Blackberries and Flip-Flones, Obviously, long story short, we walked outside. The world had changed. My show wasn't canceled, but
Sharon Macey (18:07)
But then, yeah.
Liz Lange (18:27)
everything about my show basically was. Like, it's like it never happened. Again, that's not...
That's not the tragedy of 9-11, but that was my own personal experience with it, that all the money we had spent, everything, all the press we were going to get, of course we got none of it because the world changed. We were talking about 9-11 as we should be. So this show never happened basically. so that was that. Then coincidentally at that same time, the unthinkable, which is that my family's business, which had nothing to with me, my family's business, which was a multi-billion dollar business seems to be faltering.
like something that maybe they're going bankrupt, but that's also inconceivable in my mind at this point. It's almost like Princess Bride, like maybe I need to relearn what the word inconceivable means because it was all happening. And so that's happening. And I'm thinking that's not good and that's strange. And then on top of it all, I went for just my routine, we all do as women, like my routine, know, gynecology.
Sharon Macey (19:13)
It's like, God, crazy.
Liz Lange (19:21)
gynecologist check in for a pap smear, which happens all the time. And I get this call back that there's something weird about it. And I remember I said, well, so what we'll just redo another pap the way that sometimes happens. And they were like, no, no, we don't think that's what this is. that like, and so then it turns out that I had cervical cancer, which is extraordinarily unusual. And I was only 34. So very young, it was highly unusual. And so I had to have
Sharon Macey (19:32)
Mm-hmm.
And you were young, really young.
Liz Lange (19:49)
you know, a radical hysterectomy, which was a very big operation. I had chemotherapy and radiation. I had young children. I had a business. My family money was going away. I was like, it was crazy, but I
Sharon Macey (19:52)
Huge, yeah.
How did
you deal with that? And what did that teach you? Did you discover this inner resilient mama that came out?
Liz Lange (20:11)
when people go through things and then they're always described later as like they were so brave or they were a warrior or they were, and like, guess, yes. But on the other hand, what choice does one have? Like, not saying like, do you know what I mean? Like anyone, like I just kind of like, I guess I could have just crumpled up into a ball and I bet like life goes on. had no What? I had no choice. I guess they do. That's not who I am. guess that's not who entrepreneurs are.
Sharon Macey (20:30)
And some people do. Some people do, yeah.
Liz Lange (20:37)
I guess. So like I thought of it, I guess it's the way starting Liz Lang Petrani was.
like the way I've treated this my entire business life, which is because people often ask, well, how'd you know what to do next? And I was like, I don't know. Every day I was handed a billion problems and I would try to think of what the best possible solution was, not that I knew, and go for it. And it was one thing at a time and one foot in front of the other.
I guess I'm going to have this operation. And I hear that I have to have chemotherapy and radiation. Did I want that? No. But okay. And then there were days when I was absolutely exhausted. Radiation and chemotherapy makes you absolutely exhausted. It's not the word for it. And I stayed in bed on those days and it was awful. And I was depressed, but I was lucky
I always say this because it's true.
I had somebody who worked for us at home who was fabulous with my children and could take them to school and pick them up when I could not. And my husband,
I was so lucky and I think about this all the time. I think I'm a very glass half full person and that really helps. So I kept thinking all the time, what really helped me get through it was I thought to myself, there are women, my age and younger who get death sentences, who get told like there's nothing we can do. It's inoperable. You've got six months. I mean, you they're horrible stories, but we all read about them. And I thought I am being told that this is curable.
I am being told that this is what I need to do, that, know, obviously with cancer, anything can happen, but that the odds are overwhelmingly favorable that I will be okay. And I think I was just like, I am lucky. I know how crazy that sounds, but that is the way I felt like I am.
Sharon Macey (21:58)
Yeah, but that is
totally glass half full. I mean, the fact that what you were dealing with all at once
that you just said you were totally lucky that it's totally glass half full. But I think that's a wonderful perspective to have. I think for a lot of us, know, women of a certain age, but you were so, so young when that happened. But that is inherent in who you are. And I think that helped drive.
Liz Lange (22:17)
I think it just, I think I, people
joke that I have like Prozac running through my brains. Like maybe I'm just not that smart. Like, I don't know why I just like, I was, I was very upset. mean, I don't want you to think that like there weren't times when I was sobbing about it, where I was very depressed about it. But I also, I was very focused on my business and I did not want this word to get out that I was sick. I had this idea, maybe it was slightly paranoid that it could hurt my Target deal, that it could hurt my Nike deal.
Sharon Macey (22:20)
Ha ha.
yeah.
Liz Lange (22:41)
I think that helped too. So I really didn't tell anyone.
Like my closest friends knew, I think one or two people that worked for me that I trusted implicitly, they knew, but nobody else knew.
My life was not about cancer. It wasn't like every time someone saw me, they'd be like, how are you today, Liz? What can we do for you? Everybody treated me normally and all my conversations were not about cancer. And I love that. That again, like everyone handles things differently.
Sharon Macey (23:04)
Yeah, it helped to
normalize things. Yeah. Yeah.
Liz Lange (23:06)
I like that. was very
compartmentalized. If I went in the morning to get the chemotherapy or radiation, it was over by 8.30 in the morning. And if I could, I went into my office for a few hours. If I couldn't, I went home and tried to work from home and was with my children and my husband. it somehow, I got through it. I don't know. Yeah.
Sharon Macey (23:23)
Yeah, thank God, thank God. So
I want to talk to you about your mom skills from two perspectives. First, what skills did you hone from being a mom that you still depend on today and that you would not have discovered about yourself from just being a businesswoman and not being a mom?
Liz Lange (23:42)
God, that's a good question and a hard question. Well, my business came before my mom-ness, you know. I was a business owner first.
Sharon Macey (23:47)
That's true, yes.
Liz Lange (23:49)
what I learned from my children was that when I said to you that thing about business plan, you kind of have to expect the unexpected. You could wake up in the morning and I'm always like, because the way we all think motherhood is going to go and I'm going to put them in their little outfits, the ones I thought of for them and never. And hi ho, hi ho, we're to go off to school and they're going to be perfect and then I'm going to pick them up. And kids, they're on the floor having a fit, they hate what they're wearing, they da da, they are a bad mood.
Sharon Macey (24:04)
Never goes that way. Yeah.
Liz Lange (24:17)
Anything and everything can happen. And that's true in business too. So if you don't learn to kind of roll with that and kind of just like treat yourself like, think motherhood, you're kind of in a small boat and you try to go left and left isn't working, so you go right, is kind of the way that I treat business too.
that whole idea of like maybe flexibility and pivoting, pivoting and
Sharon Macey (24:36)
and being able to pivot, yeah.
Liz Lange (24:40)
you're the parent
the ducks follow you, but you do also kind of have to go with them a little bit. And I feel like I have that in business too. Like I didn't know at the very, very beginning of Liz Lang maternity, that was going to be all about fitted. I knew that it was going to be about more tailored, but I kind of learned from the business of my customers, what they wanted. And then I would pivot that way. ⁓ and the same thing with the kids, like what they need, like what they need on a certain day may not be what I planned for that certain day.
but you know what, we have to scrap what I plan and we just have to stay home and bake cookies.
And I noticed
Sharon Macey (25:12)
Yeah.
Liz Lange (25:12)
the biggest mistake I could make, which I was making sometimes was to be present in neither place, to be at home with my children, but really looking at my BlackBerry,
And then conversely,
If I'm at the office and I'm like very worried that I should be at the school play or something with my kids and I'm not getting anything good done at the office either.
I'm not always good at it, but just commit to being present at that place, whether it's the office or the home.
Sharon Macey (25:36)
I love it. Hey, Liz, we are going to take a quick break. And when we come back, we are going to dive into your decision to sell your business, sell your brand and lean into family life. Folks, don't go away. A more coming back.
Hey, we're back with Liz Lang.
Liz,
you have been super candid that you could not run a booming business,
and be fully present for your kids,
And then after these massive brand deals with Target and Nike, and also your completely me line with HSN,
which focus on the accessible non-maternity women's wear, you ultimately made the choice to sell your company and step back,
to focus on your family. Why then? And what did the period of life teach you about balance and knowing when it's time to pivot and do something like that?
Liz Lange (27:46)
for every person, it's a very personal thing and a very individual decision. I was working on Liz Lang, as any entrepreneur will say, from the day I started it till the day I sold it, around the clock. Like there's no success without being kind of an animal. You know, I was so driven. I was the person, you know, that was sending texts and emails to employees at three in the morning. Like, have you thought of this? Shouldn't we do that? Let's talk about this tomorrow.
like I was just
extraordinarily focused on it.
it's very popular to talk about women having it all. It's extremely popular. I don't believe in it. I, we all are finite. You can't.
Sharon Macey (28:23)
I agree with you. Can't have it all. You can have it
all, but you just can't have it all together.
Liz Lange (28:27)
No, and I think I've had it all in the best possible way, but not at the same time. So I did feel very much like I was that mom. There were different moments that would happen that were just like yikes moments, kids crying as I got on a flight on a Saturday or Sunday to fly to Minneapolis to be at Target for the week or
I would miss things. I famously missed
the interview when I was applying my children to the most popular,
primary school in New York City, somehow they ended up getting into it. But like,
I just felt like things, wheels were slightly off the
And then I felt like the older they got, the worse it got. The more cognizant they were, the more they could say words like, mommy, please don't leave. Mommy, do you have to go to the office today? Mommy, can't you come on this play day too?
I was never the mom on the play date. I was never that mom. I wasn't the mom in the baby classes. You know, again, I'm just being totally honest. I was not that mom. And so...
Sharon Macey (29:17)
And that tugs on
your heartstrings. It really does. Yeah.
Liz Lange (29:19)
It does. I didn't know the other
moms. I wasn't good friends with the other moms. I'm sure they didn't even like me. Honestly, I was a little miss thing.
it fully hit me. To be honest, what happened was I went out to raise money because I was going to... You do this thing called a road show with a banker. You're raising money. I was going to raise money for the first time really ⁓ to do a major expansion, many, many, many more retail stores.
And much to my surprise, what I got mostly was offers to buy the entire company, which I did not think it was for sale. I was not thinking that. But then I started thinking, it's a lot of money that I'm being offered. I could spend the time with my children that I'm not spending with them. And it just clicked again. you just go with, I've always, I just go with my gut. It just kind of clicked. It wasn't like I had this grand plan of this is the right moment. When they turn nine and 11, I'm going to sell the business. No.
Quite the opposite. was going for expansion.
I realized this is right. This just feels right. And I did it. it was hard. Like even though I did it that was what I wanted, it's hard to segue from being Liz Lang to being, you know, be a mom, to stay at home mom. I know there's anything wrong with it, but it was just, it was a, it was new for me.
Sharon Macey (30:24)
Mom? Yeah. Yeah.
Liz Lange (30:30)
that is when.
I sold the rights to do maternity at that point. Like I sold everything I do with maternity. And that's when I started my line. I guess I couldn't just be a stay at home mom. So that's when I started my home shopping network line, Completely Me by Liz Lang, which was a line of affordable dresses, mostly, that were not maternity. It gave me a ton.
Sharon Macey (30:35)
Okay.
Okay. It gave you more flexibility because and
family time, which you had missed out on before. So now you have that. also bigger kids, bigger issues, right?
You really believe the, yeah.
Liz Lange (30:57)
I wouldn't trade anything that
I did a hundred percent. Like I can't imagine not being there for them when they were in like upper middle school and high school.
Sharon Macey (31:06)
so after that,
you later made the decision in 2012 to buy the brand Fig. Talk about that. ⁓ 2020, sorry about that. 2020.
Liz Lange (31:10)
It was 2020, it was 2020, not at all.
So what happened is, you know, I've always been a worker now. Now the idea of the Liz Lang that I thought I was who wasn't gonna, my kids are older at this point, they're in college. They're in college. I do this line that I told you about ⁓ completely me by Liz Lang for the home shopping network where I would go to Tampa, which is where their studios are once a month for three days and sell the line 24 seven for those three days. Like no sleep, just on air 24 seven.
Sharon Macey (31:18)
And your kids are older, right? They're getting to, yeah.
Liz Lange (31:39)
And it was a super successful line. So that was great. love doing it. And, but COVID hit, I was getting exhausted from that. I was kind of done anyway. The timing was perfect.
thought I'm not going to do that anymore. But then
my children are in college and I'm like, I'm not, I'm not so much to sit around. I have to, I have to be working. I'm so used to working. I have to be working. So I was thinking about, do I start another brand? Do I buy a brand?
so many brands during COVID started going out of business, so many fashion brands, it was a really horrible time. But so a brand that I had always loved, I had no business connection to, but this brand FIG, it's F-I-G-U-E, because there's another FIG that's spelled differently. A resort wear brand that sells a ton of like caftans and easy dresses, things I was wearing a lot of during COVID actually became for sale. And I decided to buy that brand at auction and relaunch it.
and that became my new business. It was the first time that I bought a brand. was a brand that I did not, you I'm not the founder of it. And so that's been a lot of fun and that's kind of been my last five years.
Sharon Macey (32:37)
And has that been easier on you than starting a brand from scratch, right? Acquiring an existing brand, right?
Liz Lange (32:40)
It is, but it's
easier because so much of the hard, know, sort of what I'd call like the takeoff years of like, know, I'm sick when the plane takes off the, like the ascent that had already happened for this brand. So, that made it easier. Yes.
Sharon Macey (32:49)
Right? Right.
Got it, got it. And you could be more
present, which was something that you wanted to do. Yeah.
Liz Lange (32:59)
Absolutely. And my children,
I wish my children wanted me to be with them more, isn't that the way it goes? But they're not, they don't, they do their own thing.
Sharon Macey (33:05)
Right?
So I'm sort of backtracking a little. When we met at an event, shared that your son once wrote a blog entitled, Lang Isn't Who You Think She Is. So was this heartwarming or was it horrifying?
Liz Lange (33:20)
my son is very funny and very provocative. So
it was kind of meant to be funny, but you know, there's always some honesty in jazz. Yes. And he was young. And so it was just about like, you know,
Sharon Macey (33:27)
but it was his heart talking, right? Yes.
Liz Lange (33:35)
mom is always someplace else. Like she's not at home. She's, you know, out at a cocktail party. She's at a business meeting. She's here. She's there. I mean, the one thing that was completely made up as it turns out, this is just one of those things. I don't drink. I don't like alcohol. I never have. I'm not an alcoholic. I just don't like alcohol. But in his blog, I'm an alcoholic who's always drunk. So that was horrendous because then people would be like, my gosh, I had no idea how many, you how long have you been sober? I'm like,
Sharon Macey (33:54)
God.
Liz Lange (34:01)
⁓ And I don't even think they believe me. still think it was like Liz that first step is admitting it. And I'm like, yes. I was like, all right, all right, you got me. I was drug addict and an alcoholic. So yeah, so that was interesting when he did that. Yeah. My kids still to this day
Sharon Macey (34:06)
⁓ You were going through the denial phase, right? my God, that's hysterical.
Liz Lange (34:20)
they like to kind of exaggerate and laugh about the early years and you know, we didn't know mom. ⁓
Sharon Macey (34:25)
But then when you dialed it back and you were more
around, he should have redone the blog talking about, know, Liz Lang is what you think she is now, you know, she's around. Yeah, that would have been nice. Yeah.
Liz Lange (34:34)
That would have been nice. Alas, no. I don't know what your children are
like, but that's not, no. But anyway, they're funny and it was funny. And we do still laugh about Liz Lang. It's not who you think she is. We still think it's funny. And it's a very funny title.
Sharon Macey (34:40)
Well, they...
Right.
Right. I love that.
All right, Liz. So you have mastered maternity
resort chic fashion, raising kids. Now it's time for the Mom-to-More lightning round. OK, we're going to do
Liz Lange (35:00)
no.
Sharon Macey (35:02)
super short answers.
are you ready?
I have a few questions to ask you.
Liz Lange (35:05)
Yeah, sure, of course.
Sharon Macey (35:06)
New York City, Hamptons or Palm Beach.
Liz Lange (35:09)
Palm Beach.
Sharon Macey (35:10)
Kaftan or jeans?
Liz Lange (35:12)
Kaftan.
Sharon Macey (35:13)
Morning Mama or Night Owl.
Liz Lange (35:16)
Both.
Sharon Macey (35:16)
I like that. Go to coffee order.
Liz Lange (35:19)
Latte. Made at home. Made at home.
Sharon Macey (35:22)
Let's have a good coffee machine. The first celeb you ever dressed.
Liz Lange (35:25)
Cindy Crawford.
Sharon Macey (35:28)
one item every mom should pack
for a weekend away with her significant other.
Liz Lange (35:33)
a really versatile dress that you can dress up and dress down. It's really versatile.
Sharon Macey (35:36)
Got it.
Favorite thing you did with your kids.
Liz Lange (35:39)
baking.
Sharon Macey (35:43)
your best mom moment.
Liz Lange (35:46)
traveling with the kids.
Sharon Macey (35:49)
I love that, love that. And one piece of advice you would give to a mom dreaming about her next chapter.
Liz Lange (35:54)
everything and anything is possible. Like, you know, don't let the naysayers, you know, which are often yourself, like get in your way.
Sharon Macey (36:02)
I love that because
you're right, it comes from inside versus an external force. Absolutely, absolutely. So
Liz Lange (36:05)
Yeah. Yeah.
Sharon Macey (36:09)
Liz, unfortunately, our time is drawing to a close because you are so fun. And I feel like I can chat with you all day. At Momtimore, we always talk about the idea that motherhood is not a pause. It's really a launch pad. So Liz Lang, what is the more you're stepping into now?
Liz Lange (36:26)
You know, my fantasy is that I'll write the book I never wrote called, ⁓ labor of love. That is all about,
Sharon Macey (36:32)
I love.
Liz Lange (36:33)
starting the brand, Liz Lang maternity and, know, the, whole, the whole, journey from, from beginning to selling it. I think about that all the time and then just life lessons along the way.
Sharon Macey (36:43)
Right. That would be an amazing book and I love the Love that.
Liz Lange (36:46)
Thank you.
Sharon Macey (36:48)
OK, Liz, so please tell everyone where they can find you online. Listen to your podcast. Folks, everything is going to be in the show notes.
Liz Lange (36:56)
Follow me on Instagram. answer
everybody's comments personally. I'm the only one on my Instagram. It's Liz Lang Official. Listen to the podcast, which is available wherever you listen to podcasts called the Just Enough Family. It's kind of my whole life story. It's fun.
Sharon Macey (37:09)
Thank you, thank you. Liz Lang, how fun to meet you, right? I wore your clothes and when we met, I showed you that picture of me from 24 years ago, 25 years ago,
wearing one of your dresses. Such an inspirational story you have been through so much
I love just your attitude about everything. You are a
half full.
woman. So I really appreciate that. And just thank you for your time today. This has been wonderful.
Liz Lange (37:33)
Thank you for having me.