Claire McCardell: The Designer Who Set Women Free

by Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson

The riveting hidden history of feminist trailblazer Claire McCardell—the most influential fashion designer you’ve never heard of.

Claire McCardell forever changed American fashion. In fact, much of what we wear today can be traced back to ballet flats, mix-and-match separates, wrap dresses, hoodies, leggings, denim in womenswear, and more. She was compared to Albert Einstein for the prophetic original creations that she made over her three-decade career. But most importantly, she designed clothes to support a woman’s independence. She tossed out corsets in favor of a comfortably elegant look. She insisted on pockets, during a time when male designers didn’t see a need for them. She made zippers easy to reach because, as she said, a woman “may live alone and like it, but you may regret it if you wrench your arm trying to zip a back zipper into place.”

After World War II, McCardell fought the severe, hyper-feminized silhouette that was championed by predominantly male designers. Leading the charge was Christian Dior, who favored tightly cinched waists and towering high heels. Dior claimed that he wanted to “save women from nature.” McCardell, by contrast, wanted to set women free. Claire McCardell became, as the young journalist Betty Friedan called her in 1955, “The Gal Who Defied Dior.” And yet it is Dior’s name that we remember today.

This book tells the forgotten story of Claire McCardell and offers an unprecedented look inside a savvy mind that was steadily building an empire at a time when women rarely made it to the upper echelons of business. She was one of the first American designers to have her name carried on the clothing that she designed. McCardell defied gender expectations not just in her professional life, but her personal life as well. She was raised to be a homemaker, yet she chose to remain single until nearly forty years old and didn’t have any children of her own.

As entertaining as it is enlightening, this book illuminates how Claire McCardell become a global sensation who imagined, and created, something that didn’t yet fully American sportswear. This book is, at its core, the story of our bodies and our rights to choose how we dress, which is a symbol of our right to choose how we live.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Fashion, History, Feminism, Audiobook, Memoir

336 pages, Hardcover

Published June 17, 2025

About the author

I grew up in the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia, not far from Tinker Creek, the one made famous by the writer Annie Dillard. I have always been a reader, and as a kid I snuck off into the woods with a Nancy Drew mystery tucked in my bag.

Today, I'm an award-winning journalist and author known for highly researched reporting and cultural essays. My writing has been widely published in places like The New York Times, Harper’s, The New Yorker, and The Washington Post Magazine, among many others.

My first book Claire McCardell: The Designer Who Set Women Free is due out from Simon & Schuster on June 17, 2025.

Reviews

[Literary Redhead · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic bio of a post-WWII designer I'd not heard of before, but one who changed fashion by making women's clothing with pockets, reachable zippers, and easy to wear silhouettes created for freedom of movement. Many of the items women wear today -- ballet slippers, leggings, denim, and mix-and-match pieces -- can be credited to her influence. Highly recommended!

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not a fashionista, but I enjoyed this book immensely. The history of fashion has been swayed by so many factors, and women like Claire McCardell have been so impactful in my own life without my knowledge, and this would be the same for any woman in the US. This book further reminded me that what we tolerate is equal to something being acceptable. I wish this book had pictures in it, where there were descriptions of clothing, magazine covers, etc. I spent a fair amount of time looking these up on the internet. I'm assuming the actual release will include those, while this was an ARC, but if not, I hope the publisher will consider adding those visual aids.

[Leigh Kramer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This forthright accounting of designer Claire McCardell is really the story of US fashion breaking free from Paris and developing its own style and point of view. She played a huge role in this. WWII led to interest and opportunity for US designers who no longer had access to France (e.g. could no longer copy Parisian clothes). McCardell was often ahead of her time but society eventually caught up to her. We have McCardell to thank for pockets in women's clothes and she paved the way for swimsuits as we now know them, along with inventing sportswear.

She died in 1958, not long after being diagnosed with cancer. Her family and Townley let her label die a year later but her influence survived, even if not many people know her name. Many of today's designers cite her as an influence, including Tory Burch, Ralph Lauren, and Tommy Hilfiger. It's bittersweet to compare her legacy to Christian Dior who died a year prior to her and whose label lives on. While I find much of Dior's contemporary designs beautiful, his initial offerings were constricting and borne out of fatphobia (and likely misogyny). McCardell by contrast thought about what women's clothing needed, whether practical aspects like pockets or honoring their bodies. I can only imagine how she would have continued to impact fashion had she not died at 52.


Content notes: colon cancer (died at age 52), death of mentor (drowned while rescuing his brother), partner's ex-wife died after surgery, partner had sole custody of his son while his ex-wife had sole custody of their daughter, divorce, infidelity, sexism, misogyny, systemic racism, systemic transphobia (legislation requiring people to wear clothes that match the gender assigned at birth), industry anti-fat bias, fatphobia, diet culture, food poverty, industry abuse (e.g. Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire), IP theft (industry practice of clothing copying), World War II, Korean War, military service and deployment (relatives), Great Depression, past death of grandparent, alcohol, hangover, cigarettes, gendered pejoratives, ableist language

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Claire McCardell seems to be in the midst of a renaissance, and for good reason. She had an outsized influence on fashion, American and at large. She invented or popularized a number of foundational styles, including ballet flats, wrap dresses, leggings, and women's clothes with pockets. Where would I be without McCardell!

This book is a well written, straightforward biography of the designer, focusing on her family life, growing up and later in marriage, and her professional life, centered around New York and Paris. We're fortunate to have so much material left behind - letters, interviews, illustrations - to give reasonable insight into her thought process, particularly her evolution from middling student to her own greatest advocate. The book is a little light on insight into her relationships, but that seems like a feature of McCardell rather than a bug of the book.

This isn't the longest or deepest biography I've ever read, but it's digestible and doesn't get bogged down in minutiae, and that's its own kind of virtue. Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the arc!

[Martha · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a well written and researched book about a women's clothing designer who American women today should be grateful for. McCardell had a vision that was a departure from the status quo of women's clothing design. She was born in 1905 and came into her own in the largely male dominated garment industry of New York during the 1930s and 40s. Until then it was Paris that inspired the fashion of the Western world. Clothing for women (well, mostly upper and upper middle class women) was designed for how a woman would look, her appeal to the opposite sex. Girdles, stays and flounces were the norm. McCardell, as a woman, was more interested in how clothing felt and worked. She wanted pockets and fabrics that would complement a woman's natural figure. Her vision paid off, especially as the Second World War closed down the Paris ateliers and fabric was rationed. By all accounts, she was a remarkable presence in the clothing industry. She was a pioneer in using denim for women's clothing and for the comfortable styles in daywear and evening wear that freed women to enjoy themselves rather than feel restricted or uncomfortable in overly structured garments. Interestingly, though, after her death at the age of 51 from aggressive cancer, her name disappeared from the mainstream, even as her design ethic for American women's fashion lived on.

[Jude Mercer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent biography of an important designer you’ve probably never heard of, yet directly influenced the clothes you wear everyday. I’m also struck by the feminism of the 30’s and 40’s and really wish history could have just skipped over the 50’s or something. Those ladies back then were badass.

[Caitlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very informative.

[Allison Roenigk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Could not recommend this book more! I learned so much about the designer that has influenced the clothes we wear every day. This book is more than just a book about fashion, it delves into the ways in which fashion illustrates issues and broader society. The writing and storytelling was engaging and I couldn’t put down the book.

[Suzy Kopf · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book but probably a 3.8 rounded up to a 4. I learned so much about McCardell and the fashion industry in the US in general that I didn't already know and it was kind of mind blowing. The author makes little political feminist digs throughout aligning the 1940s with today that of course I loved. She reads McCardell's lame unsupportive husband for filth multiple times and it's awesome.

My main issue is the writing style-- this book seems like it was written for a high school reader. Concepts are hammered home again and again and language is very simple. Additionally sometimes we get way too much information on a secondary character for no real reason. Do we need to know anything about the subject's formally estranged step-daughter's debutante season? Not really! It's very GOT in this way lol

[Diane Vallere · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it! I'm a fan of fashion history and have been binging a WWII-era mystery series, so this book had perfect context. It's surprising, considering how much McCardell contributed to the way women dress today that more people don't know her name. Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson writes with a breezy, engaging voice that made this compulsively readable. Recommend for fans of history, fashion history, and women's history.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Claire McCardell has always been a mystery to me because she was not as visible as Christian Dior or YSL or even the American designers like Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein. She certainly was trailblazing for her time. Marrying late to a man she was involved with for many years (kinda sinful back then), refusing to back down when told she couldn't use her designs. I found it interesting that so many designers I know about say she influenced their work. I ended up googling her clothes and can clearly see how a red tartan plaid cotton shirtwaist dress that I wore in maybe 1964 was copied from her stuff.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well written biography based on letters, interviews, and other published material, it reads like a novel and creates a picture of a woman who made huge changes to what women, especially American women, wore from the 1920’s on. Her influence can still be seen today, although most of us who are unversed in the fashion world have no idea how groundbreaking her work was. Coming from generations of rigid behavioral expectations and body-deforming corsets, women were ready for McCardle’s focus on comfort and active wear. An eye-opening book.

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fashion is so incredibly fascinating to me and as i read books like this I finally start to understand how it is a multifaceted beast all its own while simultaneously being a key part of society. Historically it has been a huge element in daily life, but as it evolved it really took on different forms. This book in particular was a great read because of Claire herself. It's a shame she's no longer as famous as the other designers still are, but I'm very glad to know about her now.

[Mariel · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I’d heard of Claire McCardell before, I was unaware of her enduring influence in so many aspects of modern American women’s fashion. What a force!

Side note, this book got me out of a reading funk. It’s written so intelligently and really connects the dots between historical, cultural, and personal aspects that influenced McCardell’s work.

[JANET · Rating 5 out of 5]

Considering that I had only a small interest in the book when I got it from the library, I really loved it! My mother sewed all of our clothes and taught my sister and I to sew. I have enjoyed sewing and making design choices when sewing for family members in years past. This book reminds me of the excitement I felt then but it also clarifies the important changes Ms. McCardell made in women's clothing and that relationship with the Depression and World War II and rising feminism. SO interesting!

[Joanne Swenson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant cultural and personal history from an important lens: women’s clothing, commerce and construction of the female form.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a time of hopelessness and fear about the regression of women’s rights, this book about a remarkable woman who bucked the rules for women in the 1920s-1950s gave me hope. I enjoyed it, and feel inspired having read it.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting, I learned a lot and never found it dry. Good gift for any fashion girlies in your life.

[Cindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic non fiction. I adored this book and the woman who changed the way we dress today. Fascinating history of the rise of women into the modern workplace and much more.

[Tina Panik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Impeccable.

[Luv2TrvlLuvBks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Her life may have been cut too short but her legacy in fashion is everlasting.

Claire McCardell was a fiercely ambitious innovator in the fashion industry. It is her women can thank for pockets, ballerina flats, wrap dresses, and leisure wear. Under her eye, women donned attire themselves without the assistance of others. Her goals of comfort without sacrificing style appeared in her many creations.

From a childhood in Maryland, where young Claire's parents nurtured (emotionally and financially) a conviction in her own dreams, she later found herself in the big cities of both NY City and Paris. Readers will appreciate what she achieves after seeing the obstacles along the way as she tries to gain a foothold in the industry.

Like that this was an even handed biography by not shying away from Claire's less than virtuous actions. Her poor treatment of a former college roommate and close friend when they became competitors in the same industry showed a not so nice side of her. Her personal life was certainly kept separate from her public persona as can be seen to her marriage with Harris. Appears that while he did not undermine her successes, he did not go vocally celebrate them either.

During Claire McCardell's time period, designers such as Dior were widely lauded by the public. His name dominates fashion but, hopefully with this book, Claire McCardell will become just as celebrated, if not more so.

This ARC was provided by the publisher, Simon & Schuster, via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Keri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun to learn about fashion during a somewhat forgotten era and the origins of modern women’s clothing. Not the best writing but still an enjoyable read.

[Min · Rating 1 out of 5]

Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson had access to a wealth of information on Claire McCardell, including her letters to her family of origin. So why one star? I rated this book one star because of its racist and feminist focus, which causes the author to include material that is extraneous to McCardell's life.
For example, Dickinson discusses two black female designers, one of whom designed Jackie Kennedy's wedding dress. These couturiere designers did not work in the same genre as McCardell, who created mass market designs for women leading ordinary lives. Her approach came to be called the American Look. Dickinson indulges in "body shaming" in regard to this "Vogue"-supported style. She speculates that the independent McCardell "succumbed to the societal pressure to remain thin, and she encouraged diet and exercise" (p. 216). She contrasts McCardell with one of the black designers who "turned out exquisitely crafted clothes for women who didn't have the popularized thin American Look" (p. 217).

At the book's start Dickinson states that the Nineteenth Amendment "had given white women the right to vote" (p. 21), while the color-blind Nineteenth Amendment simply states:
"The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
"Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."

Dickinson assumes that feminist principles, such as the "right" to contraception and abortion, are givens. Many women disagree, including myself. Dickinson hilariously declares that McCardell was a flapper. The flappers were feminists, so "McCardell was a flapper for her ideals of independent womanhood, if not for the full adoption of the signature look. She disliked the tube-shaped dresses" (p. 34) and she also did not adopt the flapper bobbed haircut. Her only concession to the flappers was that she wore a felt cloche hat!

The author claims that because of the 1930s adoption of the Hays Code by the film industry, "a woman could no longer rid herself of a cheating husband or celebrate her sexuality on film" (p. 102). Has she never seen Mae West in a film?

Dickinson constantly emphasizes McCardell's single status. Other women in the fashion industry, such as Dorothy Shaver, were also unmarried, but Dickinson doesn't fuss over their marital status. What is the big deal? Some women marry, and some women don't. McCardell married divorced architect Irving Harris, the father of two children, in 1943 nine years after they had met on an ocean crossing. She remained married to him until her death in June 1958 of colon cancer.

Giving priority to McCardell's full-time work schedule, Dickinson compares her with her friend from art school, Mildred Orrick (nee Boykin). Orrick got a great position after graduation while McCardell struggled. But Orrick wound up freelancing or working part-time because she married in her twenties and had two children. Dickinson seems to think Orrick's situation was sad: "She couldn't pursue her work with the singular attention that McCardell could give hers" (p. 202). Orrick and McCardell became estranged when McCardell let the public think she had originated a leotard design first created by Orrick. After several years of estrangement, Orrick and McCardell made up when 41-year-old Orrick, pregnant with her third child, contacted McCardell. Their friendship resumed, and in 1958 Orrick helped the dying McCardell elope from her hospital bed to make her last public appearance in a red denim suit. Orrick also collaborated with McCardell on her final collection, and after McCardell's death she worked to keep McCardell's label alive for two more seasons. Despite her tsk-tsking over family-oriented Orrick, Dickinson writes that Orrick "had a thriving career of her own" (p. 269). So much for Dickinson's endorsement of women who work full-time!

Predictably, Dickinson has problems with the "patriarchy," and throughout the book she decries the dominance of MEN in so many areas of life. Ironically, she details the men who aided and abetted McCardell, such as her father Adrian LeRoy McCardell; Frederick, Maryland, neighbor Billy Quinn, who she bumped into in Paris (with no citation provided); fashion industry toilers Robert Turk, Norman Norrell, Adolph Klein, Emilio Pucci, and Stanley Marcus--to name a few!

I already knew of McCardell's sartorial exploits and innovations from Kohle Yohannan and Nancy Nolf's 1998 "Claire McCardell: Redefining Modernism," published by Abrams. It has interesting information about McCardell's letting her family know that she was dating a divorced man that is absent from Dickinson's book. I highly recommend this 1998 book for its great photos and its absence of racist and feminist baggage.

[Ms. Yingling · Rating 5 out of 5]

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

I don't read a lot of adult books, but when I was invited to read this new title during Women's History Month, I couldn't decline! I'd heard of McCardell, since I read a lot of fashion history, but was surprised at how perfectly her life embodied everything that went on in the early twentieth century!

Born in 1905, McCardell was a bit younger than my grandmother, which gave me good perspective. She was a very active child, and enthralled by her mother's wardrobe. I loved the depiction of families bringing in a seamstress to help with seasonal sewing. We have almost entirely forgotten as a society that ready to wear clothing wasn't always available. Even in the 1980s, I was making a lot of clothing for both my mother and myself! Also fascinating was the fact that while McCardell's parents were very invested in the idea that she would go to college, she wasn't interested in the local Hood College that her father helped found. She wanted to go to what was to become Parsons School of Design, then in its infancy. From there, she studied in Paris, and then had the most amazing career in the New York grament industry, holding a wide variety of roles at a time when women had to fight very hard to make their way in any field.

This touched on her private life just enough; we see her romantic relationship factually presented as a factor in her career, which I appreciated. We also see a few friendships, and her family, in the same way, making this a great career biography. I do wish there had been some pictures; maybe in the final version there will be. It would have been nice to see the people in her life, and its essential to see the fashions she created, but of course those are easy enough to look up online.

There is a mention of home economics, and how it was a back door for women to get into science and many other fields. Of course, McCardell had to study this field. I highly recommend Dreilinger's The Secret History of Home Economics: How Trailblazing Women Harnessed the Power of Home and Changed the Way We Live if you are interested in women's history.

A young readers version of this (slightly shorter, with a lot of pictures) would be fantastic, as would a similar biography of the amazing Edith Head, who is mentioned briefly. I won't be buying this for my middle school library, but I sort of want a copy for myself, mainly because McCardell's life story showcases the history of the early 1900s. It's just a shame that she died in 1958; how amazing would her designs in the 1960s and 70s have been?

[Seth Sawyers · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Hero’s Journey, with Pockets

I picked up a biography about a woman I’d never heard of who practiced a form of art I don’t often think about, and I couldn’t put it down.

Such is the storytelling ability of Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson in her super-readable biography of midcentury fashion designer Claire McCardell. Though the book’s subtitle tells us McCardell becomes the “designer who set women free,” Evitts Dickinson has structured her biography so that triumph never feels assured. The result is a book that compels.

We’re told a version of the hero’s journey story. In the early 1920s, McCardell, a talented but academically disinterested young woman from Frederick, leaves for New York. There, she encounters a thousand obstacles, gets knocked back, ultimately succeeds, only to be largely forgotten after her early death at the age of 52. It’s those obstacles—less-talented business partners, prejudice toward dresses containing pockets, Christian Dior, and, above all else, a business world hostile to successful women—met with McCardell’s talent and drive that make this the kind of satisfying story in which the hero conquers after having risen from little.

Beyond only recounting the stones thrown and the stones dodged, Evitts Dickinson writes with such seeming ease, such richness of 1920s Paris or wartime New York or McCardell’s New Jersey country house, that the pages fly by. It all goes down so easy, the feel of the linen, the chill of the transatlantic voyage, the warmth of the weekend stews she’d make, that you forget you’re reading a biography. It feels like you’re reading a story.

It’s a sewing machine of a biography. You’re the fabric, pulled along. It’s a book that leaves a mark. Even if you’re like me, who hasn’t thought much about fashion, you’ll not again look at something on a hanger without thinking about how it came to be or how it, as McCardell so often thought about, might make a body feel.

(Originally published in the Baltimore Review: https://baltimorereview.org/blog/post...)

[Mona · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m glad I finally know the name Claire McCardle! If you are fashion-history-curious: suffice to say it’s thanks to her we have pockets in dresses, ballet flats, denim in womenswear, wrap dresses, leggings, day to night separates, leather skirts, and more comfortable (and freeing) staples we still love wearing today. This book also touches on how a small group of women helped establish NYC as a fashion powerhouse on par with Paris or Milan, during a unique political period which opened up a vacuum of sorts. I am eager to learn more about that, in detail, and came across a book I’ve added to my to-read list (not by this author) called “Empresses of Seventh Avenue: World War II, New York City, and the Birth of American Fashion” by Nancy MacDonell. I thought I’d mention it here since it may appeal to you, random reader of my casual review.

Anyway, McCardle was a fearless powerhouse of a woman and this book is a great read even if you’re not super into fashion. This is just as much a Paris/New York City model/designer coming of age story set in the 1920s through the 1940s as it is an empowering piece of fashion history. The book is told in a breezy, narrative way so it has the feel of a charming novel, which gives it broad appeal beyond the usual sartorial-focused readers. This would be a fabulous travel book or social book club pick!

I learned a lot about the history of the fashion industry reading this book, but I’ll provide a taster of one of my favorites. I was fascinated when Dickinson described the practice of attending fashion shows, memorizing the looks, and then quickly drawing them and selling them for knock-offs! I had no idea that’s how it was done and I thought McCardle’s approach, using letters to memorize visual details, was genius! And I loved reading about how aghast everyone was about shoulder pads or (“football shoulders”) when they first debuted in dresses. There are loads of fun little facts like that in this book. I confidently recommend it!

[Ann Epstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Modern – Claire McCardell: The Designer Who Set Women Free by Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson is three volumes in one: the biography of the American fashion designer who created women’s sportswear; a survey of fashion personalities and practices from its preeminence in pre-WW2 Paris to its rising prominence in postwar New York; and a history of the emergence of second-wave feminism. This weighty and well-researched book nevertheless reads as breezily and comfortably as a McCardell wrap-around dress and pair of ballet flats. As a writer myself (see my Goodreads author page https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...), I applaud Dickinson’s skill in seamlessly joining a multitude of facts with a flowing narrative. McCardell emerges as a modern designer with respect for the past, a woman at ease with her body who understands female anatomy. Above all, McCardell comes across as trusting her own instincts and respecting the desires of those she’s designing for. She believed that clothes should be a natural extension of the self and not, as male designers decreed, a means to reshape and even contort the body. I first learned about McCardell while researching my novel A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve., a fictional biography of the actor who plays the Munchkin coroner in The Wizard of Oz and later (as I imagined), tired of having to shop in the children’s department, opens a clothing line labeled “Big People Clothes for Little People.” He too designs for his clients. McCardell was lauded in her era, but I was dismayed that, despite being a staunch second-wave feminist since its earliest days, I had never heard of her before. Hopefully, Dickinson’s engaging and informative book will patch that hole in the fabric of fashion history and introduce McCardell to a new generation.

[Belton Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A unique book, compelling read. Claire McCardell was not only the first major American designer, and a woman at that, but also carved a path in the clothing industry that departed from the centuries of courtier designers and producers. She had several goals, all of which she achieved by hard work, breakthrough thinking and once in a while being at the right place at the right time.

Dickinson has written a formidable, engaging history of women's fashion from the legacies of the 19th century into the second half of the 20th. McCardell's life work bore the impact of two world wars, immigration, depression, and the changing roles of women, but not because of the events, but rather the McCardell approach. She wanted women to be able to wear and use their clothes as natural appendages of what they wanted to do when. From the upper class idea of dressing several times a day depending on the activity, McCardell wanted more flexibility. She sought to be a mass market designer with fashions though simple and comfortable elegantly conformed to the variety of body types and activities. She pioneered in everyday sportswear, what we now call capsule wardrobes, and a wider use of fabrics out of their normal context, such as men's tweeds for evening coats, or during WWII, using fabrics made of corn husks to let the wools, cottons, rayons be used for defense (parachutes, uniforms). She insisted on pockets that held enough to avoid purses.

Narrated as a biography, this sartorial history captures the zeitgeist of the changing times, illuminating the challenges and desires during crucial historical moments. A new sense of everyday life emerges from these pages. Her working relations with men and women is also revealing for business studies of what to do and what to avoid. In sum, a great book.

[Carole at From My Carolina Home · Rating 5 out of 5]

Do you have a garment in your closet with pockets? How about a pair of ballet flats? You have this pioneer of women’s fashion to thank for those along with many other innovations ahead of their time. This book is a fascinating look at how fashion in the early 20th century influenced the emancipation of women from the social strictures of the time. As hemlines rose, and women fought for the right to vote, Claire McCardell looked at the clothes she wanted to wear and designed them. At a time when a woman could be put in jail for wearing pants in public - yes, jail time, she designed them anyway. McCardell was the first to put pockets in dresses, something actually scandalous at the time as it would distort the ideal female form. She stopped designing dresses requiring corsets, and embraced the natural female form providing clothes that were comfortable to wear and less restrictive in range of movement. She was the first to design and produce a wrap dress, something ubiquitous today. She was the first to use denim in women’s wear, something we all live in today. With pockets. The story of how her designs influenced societal change is fascinating. Even if you don’t have much of an interest in fashion, this book will open your mind to the power one woman wielded at a time when women were encouraged to return to the home and kitchen after World War II, and Dior reintroduced corsets. Receiving a number of awards later in her career, it is unfortunate that her name was forgotten with the rise of new designers, mostly men, in the 60s and 70s. But even they acknowledge the influence McCardell had on their own designs. This was a true maverick in the garment industry, and one you will enjoy reading about.

[Miranda Vilar Bailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

From pockets to ballet flats, Claire McCardell's influence is profound. As a designer, she embraced a woman's natural beauty when others sought to stifle it. Her philosophy was rooted in lived experience, not the European standard which had long permeated American design. Despite McCardell's promotion of what are now wardrobe staples, she is largely forgotten. Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson's masterful biography seeks to reintroduce McCardell's revolutionary life to a new generation.

Through skillful use of primary sources, readers empathize with McCardell's mission to democratize fashion. It is a nuanced portrait unafraid to recount missteps. For example, McCardell went to work for Hattie Carnegie, whose aesthetic clashed with her egalitarian vision. McCardell's time there included winning an unexpected prize, which offended Carnegie so much she took the situation into her own hands. Later on, McCardell appropriated a design of a close friend.

There are aspects of McCardell's life that remain mysterious. Her marital choice is puzzling. Irving Drought Harris was a social climbing architect uninterested in her career. The relationship gave McCardell an opportunity to get out of her comfort zone, though. Having no children of her own, she became a stepmother to Harris's children. She had a special connection with his son.

Although Dickinson does an exceptional job contextualizing McCardell's life, the latter part is overshadowed by the rise of Dior. It would have been interesting to explore McCardell alongside other sportswear designers like Clare Potter. In the end, this is a fine book. May it give McCardell the recognition she has long deserved.