Claire McCardell

Claire McCardell (May 24, 1905 – March 22, 1958) was an American fashion designer of ready-to-wear clothing in the twentieth century.

She is credited with the creation of American sportswear.

McCardell was the eldest of four children born to Eleanor and Adrian McCardell in Frederick, Maryland.

Adrian was a Maryland state senator and president of the Frederick County National Bank.

As a child, McCardell earned the nickname "Kick" for her ability to keep the boys from pushing her around.

Fascinated by fashion from a young age, McCardell wanted to move to New York City to study fashion design at age 16.

Unwilling to send a teenager so far away, McCardell's father convinced her to enroll in the home economics program at Hood College instead.

After two years of study in Maryland, McCardell moved to New York and enrolled in Parsons (then known as the New York School of Fine and Applied Art).

McCardell graduated from Parsons with a certificate in costume design in 1923.

After graduation, she worked odd jobs sketching at a fashionable dress shop, painting flowers on paper lamp shades, and acting as a fit model for B. Altman.

Then she met designer Robert Turk.

In 1927, McCardell went to Paris, continuing her studies at the Parsons branch school at the Place des Vosges.

In Paris, McCardell and her classmates were able to purchase samples by couturiers such as Madeleine Vionnet that they took apart in order to study their structure.

Late in 1930, McCardell began working as an assistant designer for Robert Turk.

Soon afterward, Turk moved to a larger company, Townley Frocks, and brought McCardell with him.

During the 1930s, she began to show innovations such as sashes, spaghetti string ties, and the use of menswear details that would become part of her design signature.

In 1932, Turk drowned and Claire was asked to finish his fall line.

The 27-year-old chief designer soon traveled to Paris for inspiration, as did most American designers.

Not interested in copying European high fashion, McCardell searched for inspiration in art and street fashion.

In 1938, she modernized the dirndl.

She also pioneered matching separates.

In 1938, Claire McCardell introduced the Monastic Dress, a bias-cut tentlike dress.

It had no seamed waist and hung loosely, but with a versatile belt it could be adapted to hug a woman's curves gracefully.

Best & Co. exclusively sold the dress for $29.95 and it sold out in a day.

The "Monastic Dress" was widely copied and the cost of trying to stop knock-offs drove Townley Frocks out of business.

After the closure of Townley Frocks, Hattie Carnegie hired McCardell to work for her famed dressmaking firm, but her designs were not successful with Carnegie's clients, who were in search of more elaborate merchandise.

While working for Hattie Carnegie, McCardell met Diana Vreeland (then at Harper's Bazaar).

She would become McCardell's lifelong friend and champion.

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.

Townley Frocks reopened in 1940 under new management and McCardell returned to the brand.

The company's labels then read, "Claire McCardell Clothes by Townley", making her one of the first American designers to have name recognition.

World War II cut American designers off from European inspiration and limited the availability of some materials.

McCardell flourished under these restrictions.

Although many designers considered them too basic, McCardell already worked with fabrics such as denim, calico, and wool jersey that were easily available during the war.

She popularized the ballet flat when, responding to the shortage of leather, McCardell commissioned Capezio to produce a range of ballet flats to match her designs.

In 1941, McCardell produced a line of separates that made nine outfits from five pieces.

The pieces included a taffeta skirt, a jersey top, and a jersey jacket.

That same year, she showed her first "Kitchen Dinner Dress".

Made of cotton, the "Kitchen Dinner Dress" had a full skirt with an attached apron.

When the government announced a surplus of weather balloon cotton materials in 1944, McCardell quickly bought them up, using them to design clothes that patriotic American women wore with pride.