Business

Liz’s juicy gossip

The Los Angeles duo that co-founded Juicy Couture is taking a vacation — for good.

Gela Nash-Taylor and Pamela Skaist-Levy, who made a fortune turning women’s sweatsuits into a fashion statement, have left the upscale sportswear brand, The Post has learned.

Retail circles have been buzzing that the fun-loving 40-somethings are unhappy with the direction Juicy has taken under its struggling parent company. Sources said the duo have locked horns with Liz CEO Bill McComb over cost cuts, including a recent reshuffling of Asian manufacturers that some critics say has hurt the quality of Juicy Couture’s fashions.

The real reason for the Juicy co-founders’ departure, Skaist-Levy said in an exclusive joint interview with The Post, is that she and Nash-Taylor are feeling the itch to do other things.

They’ve netted more than $200 million since selling Juicy Couture to Liz Claiborne in 2003, and stepped down as co-presidents in 2008 to become creative directors.

“We stayed seven years, which is a long time,” Nash-Taylor said.

They have been working on a TV show, a movie and a book, Skaist-Levy said. “We’re super-creative girls. We want to bust out and do everything.”

Liz Claiborne announced internally on Jan. 4 that the co-founders were leaving, although they are expected to be retained as consultants. The company is looking to appoint a new creative director for Juicy within the next 60 days, McComb told The Post.

“As a business gets bigger and bigger, less and less comes from the founding team,” McComb said, adding that the duo’s exit is in keeping with the terms of their current contract.

Nevertheless, the departure comes at an awkward time for Juicy Couture. Despite recent efforts by Juicy to shore up interest among retailers, upscale department stores like Neiman Marcus and Bloomingdale’s have been paring back the floor space allotted to Juicy amid plunging sales and steep markdowns.

Juicy Couture has long been considered Liz Claiborne’s most promising brand, as the ailing firm scrambles to revive its Kate Spade, Lucky Brand and Mexx labels.

While Juicy’s third-quarter sales dropped 7.8 percent, the co-founders say they remain upbeat about its long-term prospects.

“They’ve been saying [the firm was] over since we first sold the company in 2003,” Nash-Taylor said.

The two have since appeared “fat and happy,” and have been noticeably out of the office recently, according to one source, despite contractual obligations to oversee Juicy Couture’s day-to-day operations.

This month, Lucky Brand President Liz Munoz quietly left the company, sources said — the latest in a string of high-level exits under McComb that includes Dave McTague, who left the helm of the partnered brands division to join Nike’s Cole-Haan unit. james.covert@nypost.com