Although the fashion industry revolves around women and their money and attention, male designers have dominated for centuries. In the nineteenth century, the rise of the male designer pushed female dressmakers and artists to the background. However, in the last few decades we have seen a major resurgence in research on female designers. Claire McCardell is one of the American designers and should be a major point in the modern fashion timeline. Just in time for Women’s History Month, let’s get into Claire McCardell: The Designer Who Set Women Free by Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson!
Claire McCardell: The Designer Who Set Women Free, Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson
Claire McCardell forever changed fashion—and most importantly, the lives of women. She shattered cultural norms around women’s clothes, and today much of what we wear traces back to her ingenious, rebellious mind. McCardell invented ballet flats and mix-and-match separates, and she introduced wrap dresses, hoodies, leggings, denim, and more into womenswear. She tossed out corsets in favor of a comfortably elegant look and insisted on pockets, even as male designers didn’t see a need for them. She made zippers easy to reach because a woman “may live alone and like it,” McCardell once wrote, “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 championed by male designers, like Christian Dior. 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.”
Filled with personal drama and industry secrets, this story reveals how Claire McCardell built an empire at a time when women rarely made the upper echelons of business. At its core, hers is a story about our right to choose how we dress—and our right to choose how we live.
Why You Should Read This…
Claire McCardell made an impact on women’s fashion as soon as she started designing. However, that impact is still growing exponentially and so much of modern women’s fashion owes a massive debt to McCardell. How many of us millennials alone can claim that we have not worn hoodies, ballet flats, or leggings? (I fully admit, I still have all of these in my wardrobe to this day- they can pry them out of my hands, thank you very much.)
Evitts Dickinson has clearly done more than her fair share of research- there is not an element of McCardell’s life that has been left untouched. The designer feels very 3D by the end of the book, like you could see her at New York Fashion Week now- she is not simply designs and correspondence left behind. And the broader context of the twentieth century, including both World Wars, is woven through beautifully. Political and social history can often be included as a kind of lecture but Evitts Dickinson gives it the weight and time it needs to fully share McCardell’s story. It is a very easy to read book that goes into a good amount of depth, a great introduction.
My one qualm with this book is that I would have loved more time spent on her actual designs and career. While her personal life was interesting and a key factor in her body of work, I feel like the people around McCardell took up a lot of space in the book. I do appreciate that Evitts Dickinson largely focused on the women around the designer, though- it further emphasises the importance of women’s history.
Want more fashion history? These are 5 female designers you should know!
Is Claire McCardell: The Designer Who Set Women Free on your to-read list?
Cheers,
The Historian
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