Maternity Maven Liz Lange on Reinventing her Brand, and Herself

Since becoming an "accidental entrepreneur" in the mid 90s, designer Liz Lange has led the charge for cute, fashionable maternity clothes that actually fit and flatter (something I'm personally very grateful for, being 36 weeks pregnant!). She sold the company for a reported $50 million in 2007-- though still remains the face of the brand-- and recently chatted with me about getting her start in fashion, battling cervical cancer like a "business problem", and why no one has an excuse not to return emails nowadays.

How did you end up as a designer?

I didn't know what I wanted to do out of school. I thought I wanted to be a writer. I'd graduated from Brown with a degree in comparative literature, and got a job at Vogue as an assistant to the features editor--but it never felt like the right fit.

I met a struggling young fashion designer (he had a one room office in a gross building, and here I was coming from this glamorous Vogue office). I felt like it was my calling. I ended up begging him to let me apprentice for him. I knew he wouldn't pay me, but I was convinced I could help him make money. As an apprentice, I was the fit model, I found sponsorships, I helped him develop a more reasonably-priced line... I just was bitten by the whole bug of the industry, but I didn't have any intention of starting my own line.

So many people have ideas but struggle with "making that leap" to start their own business. What was it like for you?

I didn't consider the apprenticeship to be the "big leap." Soon after, I got married, and all my friends got married and started having babies-and I noticed they would squeeze themselves into any clothing that had stretch in it. And, they looked cuter in those tight, regular clothes than they did in maternity clothes. I thought, whatever's in the maternity market right now is obviously not working! This was the mid-90s, and I couldn't get the idea out of my head.

I'm no artist, but I started making some crude drawings and pulled items out of my closet to reimagine them as maternity pieces. Soon I was thinking, ‘if I don't start this business and someone else does, I will never be able to forgive myself.'

Yet for much of that first year, you say you were "paralyzed." What do you mean?

Well, some days I just lied in my bed in a curled up ball when I could have been getting things done! I was asking for validation instead of actually doing something--instead of just believing in my gut instinct and going forward.

I kept thinking ‘if this were really a great idea, somebody bigger than me would already be in this business.' On top of that, whenever I asked anybody what they thought of my idea, they told me ‘nobody cares, pregnancy is not a time in people's lives that they care what they look like.'

Obviously they were wrong. Your business has gone through many phases expanding and reinventing-- from a high-end focus early on to mass market with your Target partnership; now you have your first non-maternity line with HSN, Completely Me. Do you have a certain thought process for figuring out, ‘what's next'?

No, I don't have a business background and have actually never written a business plan for anything I've done. I never think about what's going to make me money; it's more like ‘what am I looking for now.' There was a first phase of success; I had stores in several cities, I had dressed all these celebrities and felt like I achieved a dream. Then after 9/11, the business wasn't everything I had been, and I needed to reinvent my brand. That's when partnering with Target seemed right to me.

After I sold my business in 2007, I did want to move toward regular clothing. My kids are 10 and 12 now, and maternity isn't an everyday need for my friends and I. And with my shopping newsletter Shopafrolic, that just evolved out of my sister and I emailing each other links of great finds all day and night. I have zero revenue model for Shopafrolic just yet, by the way.

So for me, it's very organic, jumping on new opportunities that come my way. Don't get me wrong, I like to make money. But I tend to believe that if you pursue your passion, the money will follow.

Did battling cervical cancer in 2001 change your outlook on your career?

I didn't go public about the cancer until many years later. It was very scary and hard, but I treated it like a business problem. I didn't want it to take over my life.

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I was lucky; the doctors had told me from the beginning it was curable--and the treatment didn't cause me to lose my hair-- so it was easy for me not to go public. I didn't talk about it, and not talking about it allowed me to have normalcy. Early in the morning, I'd have chemo and radiation, then go into work. From a business point of view, I didn't want people to think they couldn't have confidence in me or the company.

You're big about being "accessible" as an entrepreneur. Why?

Yes, sometimes when I'd answer my phone, the person would say, ‘What do you mean this is Liz Lange?' I still get Target customer service emails - and respond myself. I find that when I do that it's so good for business and helps me because I need to know what my customers are liking and not liking.

I ran my business like an extension of my personal life. If a friend called me or emailed me, wouldn't I email them back? Who are we kidding--in today's world, everyone has the time to use their Blackberry. I never felt like we needed to seem bigger than we were. I didn't even have an assistant until 7 or 8 years in the business. I couldn't figure out what to have her doing all day long!

What prompted your decision to sell in 2007?

Really, I started to receive all these inquiries and one company made me an offer I couldn't refuse. I also felt more guilt about being away from my kids. Not all women would agree with me, but I felt like when they were babies, it was easier to leave them as long as they were in good hands---like, what was the difference if I took them to the park or the nanny did? But the older they got, the more I wanted to be the one who was there when they got home.

What do you think is the biggest mistake young people make when beginning their careers?

Thinking you have to have it all figured out-before college, or high schoool even. Spend your twenties allowing yourself to try a lot of different things. If there's some way you can focus on what you might love-something that doesn't feel like work (at least not all the time)-chances are you'll end up being very good at it and making money.

For more stories of career reinvention, check out my website, or you can follow me on Facebook or Twitter. Thank you!