MCCARDELL, CLAIRE 1905-1958

Fashion designer

Queen of the Casual Separates

With her first collection in 1941, Claire McCardell became a significant figure in the fashion world. Unlike many of the designs of her contemporaries, which she considered "strident," her dresses were soft in style. She was the first designer to take sportswear and make it for every possible need. Golf skirts and bathing suits were as important to her as evening dresses. Her designs shared a set of characteristic features. Bathing suits were made with the same halter necklines and out of the same fabrics as her dresses. Wrapped or peasant-inspired tops appeared in bathing suits and dresses alike. Jersey, denim, chambray, and taffeta were equally topstitched, spaghetti ties were wrapped around the waists of leisure and dress clothes, and wool was used for leotards as well as wedding dresses.

The "Popover."

McCardell was born in Frederick, Maryland, in 1905. She attended the Parsons School of Design starting in 1925 and two years later went to the Paris division of Parsons to study fashion design. She graduated in 1928 and spent five years working in various fashion houses. In 1932 she went to Townley Frocks as a design assistant; after the first showing of her dress designs she was promoted to designer. In 1942 she conceived the idea for her popular "Popover" wraparound housedress for women whose maids were leaving them for factory and defense work. The Popover dress, which sold for $6.95, was designed in response to a request from Harper's Bazaar for an all-purpose housework dress. With its topstitched denim with a wrap front, large patch pockets, and attached oven mitt, it sold in the tens of thousands.

The "Diaper" Bathing Suit

McCardell introduced many details from men's clothes to women's clothes, such as large pockets, shirtsleeve shoulders, stitching on blue jeans, and trouser pleats. She also introduced ballet slippers as dress accessories as a way for women to deal with restricted amounts of shoe leather. In 1943 she brought out her well-known "diaper" bathing suit, with brass fishing-boot hooks up the side. In the winter of 1946 she showed her Empire collar and in the fall of 1949 her "bandanna" neckline.

Successes and Prizes

Even when working within the guidelines set by the government, McCardell managed to achieve a flowing look. She used colorful patches for dress sleeves and pockets in order to conserve materials. Her use of natural shoulders and generous skirts predated Christian Dior's 1947 New Look. She also designed civil-defense uniforms. She received the Mademoiselle Merit Award (1943), the Coty American Fashion Critics' Award (1944), and the Women's National Press Club Award (1950). In April 1953 she held a retrospective exhibition of her designs from 1933 to 1953 at the Frank Perls Gallery in Beverly Hills.

Source:

Caroline Rennolds Milbank, Couture: The Great Fashion Designers (London: Thames & Hudson, 1985).

MCCARDELL, CLAIRE 1905-1958

Creator of the "american look" in fashion

Paper Dolls

The daughter of a banker and state senator, Claire McCardell as a small child cut out and dressed paper dolls from her mother's fashion magazines. After high school she attended the Parsons School of Design in New York, later studying at the school's Paris division for a year.

For Ordinary Women

Unlike other designers of the time who copied the stilted Parisian fashions, McCardell decided to modify them to fit the ordinary woman's pocketbook and demand for comfort as well as fashion. McCardell is credited with originating the so called American Look of the 1950s, the forerunner of today's comfortable, easy fashions. Clothes should be comfortable as well as handsome, she said, and should be appropriate to the occasion. They should fit well and be attractive.

American Fabrics

McCardell used such American fabrics as calico, seersucker, ticking, gingham, denim, and wool jersey to make simple, relaxed, wearable clothes. She picked up many details from men's clothing, such as large pockets, shirtsleeve shoulders, bluejeans topstitching, trouser pleats, rivets, and gripper fastenings. Among her innovations were ballet slippers as dress accessories, the monastic dress, harem pajamas, the "Pop-over" wraparound housedress, and the diaper bathing suit. She also pioneered the idea of interchangeable separates. In addition, McCardell designed sunglasses, infants' and children's wear, children's shoes, and jewelry.

Many Awards

McCardell received many honors, including the American Fashion Critics Award and the Neiman-Marcus Award. In 1950 President Harry S Truman presented her with the Women's National Press Club Award. Her designs were consciously contemporary, and most look contemporary forty years later.

Claire McCardell 1905–58, American fashion designer, b. Frederick, Md. She began her career as a model and assistant designer for Robert Turk in 1929. Her clothes were functional with clean lines and an American look. She is known for her wrap-around sashes, monastic dresses, harem pajamas, and large pockets with top stitching. She also designed bias-cut dartless clothes with an easy-to-wear relaxed look.

Bibliography: See her What Shall I Wear (1955); J. Yohannan and N. Nolf, Claire McCardell: Redefining Modernism (1998)