Doris Fisher, who built Gap Inc. into a retail giant, dies at 94

The company she started in 1969 with her husband, Don, grew from a single store selling jeans and records to a $16 billion brand that remade the apparel industry.

Doris Fisher, who co-founded their clothing brand — Gap — with her husband, Donald has died at 94.

They were said to have make finding well-fitting jeans easier when they started in 1969. Doris served as the brand’s merchandiser, shaping Gap’s style identity until she stepped down in 2003

A spokesperson for Gap confirmed to PEOPLE that Doris, “passed away this weekend, surrounded by her family” on Saturday, May 2. In a statement shared with Gap Inc. employees, CEO Richard Dickson said Doris died “peacefully,” and highlighted her “brilliance, quiet determination, and heart,” all of which positively impacted the business and the broader fashion scene.

“Doris built Gap with vision, conviction, and an equal voice in the brand from the very beginning — at a time when that was highly unusual for women,” Gap wrote in a tribute on Instagram. “She was, simply, a true original.”

“Her values shaped our company. And her eye shaped our style,” the post continued. “Her legacy is woven into who we are. What we wear. And how we show up. Today, and always.”

The businesswoman and her husband created the clothing brand together in 1969, built on the goal to “make it easier to find a pair of jeans that fit with a commitment to do more,” per the brand’s site. Donald himself experienced that all-too-familiar problem, BBC reported, and the frustrating experience fueled his and Doris’ new business.

Doris came up with the brand’s name, which referred to the generation gap in an effort to draw in younger shoppers, BBC reported, and the brand’s effort to “bridge gaps to create a better world,” Dickson wrote in his message to Gap employees.

The couple, who wed in 1953, opened the doors to their first store in 1969 in San Francisco, where only men’s Levi’s jeans and record tapes were sold, followed by another location in San Jose, Calif., the following year, at which time the brand began making jeans for women, too, per the brand’s site. Three years in, Gap had established 25 stores, and by 1987, it had expanded internationally by opening a number of stores in London, then more in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, two years later.

Doris worked as Gap’s merchandiser, thus influencing the brand’s style identity, until 2003. Donald stepped down as Gap Inc.’s chairman the year after, though he remained on the board. Five years later, Gap’s co-founder and Doris’ husband of 56 years died at age 81.

Since its founding, Gap has grown to include Old Navy, Banana Republic and Athleta, with the four brands operating about 3,570 stores across the world, BBC reported.