First published 2025
Claire McCardell transformed how American women dress, yet few people know her name today. Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson recovers the story of this forgotten designer who created ballet flats, wrap dresses, mix-and-match separates, and brought denim into women's closets. McCardell threw out corsets and insisted on pockets when male designers saw no need for them. She made zippers reachable because women might live alone and shouldn't wrench their arms getting dressed. After World War II, she fought against the restrictive silhouettes that Christian Dior and other male designers imposed on women. Young journalist Betty Friedan called her "The Gal Who Defied Dior" in 1955. McCardell built a fashion empire when few women reached business leadership. She remained single until nearly forty and chose not to have children. Dickinson shows how McCardell's designs reflected her belief that clothing should support women's independence. This biography reveals how one designer's vision became the foundation of modern American fashion and connects the right to choose our clothes with the right to choose how we live.
Genres: biography, 20th-century, business, feminism, design, american-history
Vibes: empowering, enlightening, inspiring, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: forgotten-legacy, pioneering-woman, underdog-story
Setting: United States, America
Period: 20th century, 1950s, World War II era, post-World War II
336 pages · Paperback · Simon & Schuster