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 her: 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 exist: 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.