Claire McCardell

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Claire McCardell (1905–1958) was an American fashion designer and was arguably the leading force behind the development of American ready-to-wear fashion. From the 1930s to the 1950s, she revolutionized women's wear by designing clothing that was simple, functional, and stylish, all within the constraints of mass-production. Her ideas have so influenced and pervaded contemporary fashion that Life magazine, in 1990, named her one of the 100 most important Americans of the twentieth century. Four years later, New York Times senior fashion writer Bernadine Morris even dubbed her "this country's finest designer."

A quintessentially American artist often compared to Frank Lloyd Wright and Martha Graham, Claire McCardell was the chief purveyor of the "American Look," a style of clothing with roots in sportswear that was both casual and chic. Democratic in spirit, she brought high style to everyday clothing. Her work led the way in releasing America's fashion aesthetic from French dominance.

McCardell was incredibly versatile, designing raincoats, ski outfits, and wedding dresses, in addition to the standard coats, suits, and dresses. Her prodigious imagination was evident in the overall look of a piece, as well as the details of its construction, making the practical visually exciting.

Born in Frederick, Maryland, in 1905, Claire McCardell took an early interest in fashion. As a child, she would cut figures from her mother's fashion magazines in order to create paper dolls. She also developed a dissatisfaction with women's wear when her own clothing proved impractical when playing sports with her brothers.

To pursue her interest in fashion, McCardell enrolled in Parsons (then known as the New York School of Fine and Applied Art) in 1925. There, she received a grounding in the general principles of art and design as well as the more specialized disciplines of costume illustration and design. For her second year of study, she attended the school's branch in Paris. The students were often invited to view the collections at important couture houses, including that of Madeleine Vionnet, whom McCardell especially admired. By purchasing and disassembling Vionnet end-of-season samples, she learned about that designer's pioneering use of the bias cut. Ingeniously, McCardell would later apply this technique for making well-fitting and flexible clothing to casual wear. In 1928, after completing a third year in the school, this time at the New York campus, she received her certificate in Costume Design.

McCardell then had a series of short-term jobs before becoming the assistant to New York fashion designer Robert Turk. When, in 1931, Turk assumed the position of head designer for Townley Frocks, she followed him to that company. Soon thereafter, Turk was killed in a boating accident, and McCardell took over. She went on to produce groundbreaking designs under the Townley Frocks name until 1939, when the operation closed its doors. Hattie Carnegie then hired McCardell to work for her famed dressmaking firm, but her designs were not successful with Carnegie's clients, who expected haute couture. In 1940, just before leaving Carnegie, McCardell attended her last Parisian fashion show, preferring from then on to avoid any French influence on her clothing.

After designing briefly for Win-Sum, a low-end manufacturer, McCardell returned to Townley Frocks, which reopened in 1940 under the management of Adolph Klein. The importance of her work was recognized when the company soon began issuing its product under the label "Claire McCardell Clothes by Townley," making her one of the first American designers to have name recognition.

By the time America entered the war in 1941, this country was cut off from France and its hegemony in clothing design. In addition, the war effort demanded a rationing of fabrics. These setbacks did not affect McCardell, who already was steering clear of French influence and whose designs made frugal use of material.

In 1944, McCardell, now a widely recognized designer and recently married to architect Irving D. Harris, returned to Parsons as a critic and instructor, a position she continued to hold for the rest of her life. That same year brought her the first of two Winnies, the most prestigious award in the fashion industry. When Lord and Taylor began selling clothing under the banner of the "American Look" in 1945, an effort to promote homegrown designers since the war had struck a blow at France's fashion industry, the store put McCardell's designs for Townley at the fore of its marketing campaign. By the end of the forties, Townley was Lord and Taylor's best ready-to-wear seller. McCardell's name in itself became such a selling point in this decade that she began licensing it to such companies as Accessocraft, which made costume jewelry.

McCardell received multiple honors in the 1950s. President Harry S. Truman presented her with the Women's National Press Club Award in 1950. With this award, she became the first fashion designer to be voted one of America's Women of Achievement. In 1953, Frank Perls Gallery, of Beverly Hills, mounted an exhibition of McCardell's garments. According to Look magazine, this may have been the first one-person show that considered dress designs as art objects. A clear sign of McCardell's popularity was her appearance on the cover of Time magazine on May 2, 1955.

As McCardell's fame grew, her importance within Townley also rose. In 1952, she even became a partner in the company. She was to continue designing for only another six years, however. When ill health made it impossible for McCardell to finish the collection of 1958, Mildred Orrick, her former Parsons roommate, stepped in to help. Scaasi (whose real name is Arnold Isaacs) also produced some designs for the collection. Although McCardell was able to attend the showing of this work, she died soon thereafter from cancer, at the age of 52.

Examples of clothes designed by Claire McCardell are now held by museums across the country, including the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Kent State University Museum, Kent, Ohio; and the Texas Fashion Collection at the University of North Texas, Denton, Texas. Also, numerous exhibitions of her work have been mounted. A runway show of McCardell originals presented at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, in 1972, was a landmark event that reintroduced the designer to the public. "By any yardstick," declared Newsweek on June 5, "it was the smash fashion collection of the season." In fact, "timeless" is a common adjective applied to McCardell's designs whenever they are displayed.

McCardell's work, however, is much more than a museum object. Her ideas have laid the groundwork for contemporary ready-to-wear clothing, and have been so absorbed into the language of fashion that much of what we now take for granted can be traced to her. In a general sense, the very approach to design that brings elegance and practicality to mass-produced clothing has its roots in McCardell's innovations. It is also possible to pinpoint numerous specific examples of the designer's influence on fashion of the recent decades. The designer's Monastic dress, for example, paved the way for the tent dress. Similarly, her Pop-over metamorphosed into the wrap-around dress, and her revolutionary bathing suit was the template for contemporary streamlined swimwear. Further, when McCardell adapted mechanics' overalls to create a jumpsuit, she introduced an outfit that remains popular to this day. Also, in various adaptations, her ballet slipper shoes continue to be worn.

Today's pervasive use of both denim and wool jersey as all-purpose fabrics were presaged by McCardell's fondness for these materials. Her innovative application of fake fur led to its later widespread incorporation into a variety of clothing. In terms of textile choices, the wild color, stripes, and polka dots that appeared in McCardell's work in the fifties foreshadowed the following decade's fashion with its multi-chromatic palette and references to Op art. Mention should also be made of the designer's marketing savvy. She was among the first American designers to license her name, establishing a trend that is now prevalent.

Fashion designers Donna Karen, Isaac Mizrahi, Cynthia Rowley, and Jeffrey Banks have all been influenced by McCardell; Anna Sui's line of Spring/Summer 1999 was directly inspired by her. Indeed, numerous designers have paid homage to McCardell and will continue to do so in years to come.

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