[3] After working abroad, Liebes returned to the United States and opened her eponymous studio in San Francisco.

[4] Her first studio, opened at 526 Powell Street in San Francisco in 1930, specialized in custom handwoven pieces for architects and interior designers.

[1][7] Her fabrics were known for their bold color combinations and interesting textures, and often used unexpected materials such as feathers, plastics, metallics, jute, ticker tape, leather strips, and bamboo.

[1][7] They were commissioned by architects, including Frank Lloyd Wright, Edward Durell Stone, Miller and Pflueger and Samuel Marx.

[1][8] Other clients included King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia, the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite, and the Paramount Theatre in Oakland, California.

[10] Many pioneers of the "American Look" (Claire McCardell, Clare Potter, Pauline Trigère, Lilly Daché, Louella Ballerino, Adele Simpson, and Nettie Rosenstein) used fabrics designed by Liebes.

Her close, personal relationships with costume designers Gilbert Adrian and Bonnie Cashin were forged in Hollywood, and thrived as each developed their own fashion lines.

Her Hollywood connections, especially with Art Director Cedric Gibbons led to her distinctive modernist fabrics appearing in dozens of motion pictures.

She once remarked in a lecture to design students in Chicago, “Consider the shining cellophanes, dull acetates, lacquered plastics, treated leathers, artificial horsehair, non-tarnishable materials and glass threads!” Dorothy Liebes is often credited as a vital part of the California Modernist movement, and in the 1940s and 50s she was one of the most well-known textile designers in the United States.

[11] Dorothy Liebes was a talented weaver, but she was also a sharp businesswoman who believed that mass-produced textiles could reach wider audiences, regardless of client budgets.

[13] Liebes is recognized for introducing therapeutic craft programs for World War II veterans across America.