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Claire McCardell: The Designer Who Set Women Free
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.
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.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published June 17, 2025
173 people are currently reading
2531 people want to read
About the author
Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson
3 books16 followersI 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 144 reviews
March 9, 2025
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!
May 19, 2025
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.
July 20, 2025
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
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
May 6, 2025
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!
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!
September 19, 2025
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.
December 8, 2025
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.
August 29, 2025
Very informative.
October 11, 2025
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.
February 8, 2026
Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson is an American journalist. Her 2025 book Claire McCardell is a well-researched and comprehensive biography of the aforementioned influential American fashion designer (1905-1958), who lacks the broad name recognition of other prominent designers of her era like Christian Dior and Yves St Laurent due to a variety of reasons, including being female, passing away at a relatively young age (as did Dior, 1905-1957), and not having her eponymous brand be continued posthumously due to family reasons.
I appreciate how Evitts Dickinson presented a balanced depiction of McCardell, both strengths and weaknesses, and how she referred to McCardell largely by her last name (as biographies that refer to historical women by their first names while referring to their male contemporaries by their last names are a huge pet peeve of mine, as it seems infantilizing toward the women). Though at times I wished the pacing had progressed a bit more rapidly, I did appreciate this in-depth exploration of McCardell. I would have appreciated a chapter or two at the end exploring how McCardell's innovations like ballet flats, wrap dresses, and swimsuits later influenced subsequent American and global fashion designers.
Further reading: other female entrepreneurs of the era
Becoming Elizabeth Arden: The Woman Behind the Global Beauty Empire by Stacy Cordery
The Editor: How Publishing Legend Judith Jones Shaped Culture in America by Sara Franklin
My statistics:
Book 34 for 2026
Book 2340 cumulatively
I appreciate how Evitts Dickinson presented a balanced depiction of McCardell, both strengths and weaknesses, and how she referred to McCardell largely by her last name (as biographies that refer to historical women by their first names while referring to their male contemporaries by their last names are a huge pet peeve of mine, as it seems infantilizing toward the women). Though at times I wished the pacing had progressed a bit more rapidly, I did appreciate this in-depth exploration of McCardell. I would have appreciated a chapter or two at the end exploring how McCardell's innovations like ballet flats, wrap dresses, and swimsuits later influenced subsequent American and global fashion designers.
Further reading: other female entrepreneurs of the era
Becoming Elizabeth Arden: The Woman Behind the Global Beauty Empire by Stacy Cordery
The Editor: How Publishing Legend Judith Jones Shaped Culture in America by Sara Franklin
My statistics:
Book 34 for 2026
Book 2340 cumulatively
August 28, 2025
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
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
July 1, 2025
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.
July 27, 2025
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.
November 1, 2025
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.
January 19, 2026
Loved this book. I think you need to be involved in the fashion industry on some level to truly appreciate it, however every clothes wearing female will be able to relate. The author brought to life the true essence of the evolution of ladies apparel. Every page presented vivid images of the business. Fashion/Apparel isa fast paced business with constant evolutions im fabrics and designer inspirations. Claire set the bar very high. Every one of us should be thankful for her boldness and her designs.
December 6, 2025
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.
July 28, 2025
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.
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.
October 11, 2025
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!
September 24, 2025
Brilliant cultural and personal history from an important lens: women’s clothing, commerce and construction of the female form.
November 20, 2025
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.
November 24, 2025
Very interesting, I learned a lot and never found it dry. Good gift for any fashion girlies in your life.
January 11, 2026
I very much enjoyed this look at McCardell’s life and career. I’ve admired her work and knew of some of her innovations, but wow what a dynamo. If you have any interest in fashion, business, 20th century design & culture, chances are you’ll enjoy this. I read it at a leisurely pace, and it was easy to follow even with long pauses.
October 25, 2025
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.
January 14, 2026
Interesting life so very shaped by the world history of her time. She made the most of her opportunities and seems to have enjoyed her life choices. Her contributions to fashion really changed the world and we are still wearing things that are clearly rooted in her innovative design ideas.
December 18, 2025
Impeccable.
July 28, 2025
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.
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.
August 18, 2025
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.
August 20, 2025
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.
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.
March 27, 2025
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?
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?
October 15, 2025
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...)
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...)
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