It all started with a pair of cigarette pants. In an era where television wives wore skirts and pearls, Mary Tyler Moore asked that her character Laura Petrie on the Dick Van Dyke show would wear a practical outfit for homemaking: smart cigarette pants and a chic pair of flats.

She didn’t stop there. A decade later, she insisted her character Mary Richards be a single woman who lived alone and worked as a television journalist. She was smart, independent, had great friends, and a great apartment.

To a generation of women, these choices were groundbreaking and inspiring. Among those women is our co-founder, Elyce Arons.