After spending much of the 1970s and early 1980s working as an interior designer and graphic artist in New York City, Eileen Fisher launched her own women’s clothing label in 1984 with just $350. A bold and daring move, no doubt, but Fisher had reason to be confident. At a time when “fashion-forward” meant wearing lots of neon, exaggerated shoulder pads and eye shadow, Fisher adopted an aesthetic of elegant, timeless simplicity. The approach worked: these days the Eileen Fisher label is a multimillion-dollar business, with retail stores in several countries and full lines of women’s clothing, bedding (through a licensing deal with Garnet Hill), and shoes. Fisher’s dresses, pants, denim, and other designs come in both plus and petite sizes and stay true to the designer’s tradition of choosing clean lines and silhouettes over fleeting trends.