CLAIRE MCCARDELL

The early-20th-century woman designer who revolutionized fashion—then disappeared.

“She really invented sportswear, which is this country’s major contribution to fashion,” said Calvin Klein of McCardell in 1981. Now, thanks to Dickinson’s excellent, delightfully readable biography, this extraordinary woman may finally be more widely given credit for that. In a prologue set in 1955, just three years before McCardell’s untimely death at 52, we see the designer giving Betty Friedan, then “an eager young journalist,” a tour of her innovations. “She’d developed leotards and leggings, brought hoodies, denim, and leather into womenswear, ushered the swimsuit into its contemporary form, included pockets in her clothes, and made the wrap dress a wardrobe staple.” Though “we owe much of what hangs in our closets to Claire McCardell,” writes Dickinson, it’s her contemporary (and rival) Christian Dior’s name we remember. Interestingly, Dior also died at 52 around the same time, but he had had the foresight to appoint a successor to manage his brand, a young fellow named Yves Saint Laurent. McCardell’s failure to do so meant that her label closed down shortly after her death. “Stitching Claire McCardell’s name back onto the apparel she pioneered is not merely a history lesson in provenance; it is a vital and timely reminder of a designer, and a movement, that was always about far more than clothes.” McCardell’s achievement was founded on unconventional choices. She chose not to have children and did not marry until she was nearly 40. She was ferociously private, rarely discussing her personal life in interviews, which makes Dickinson’s deeply researched portrait all the more impressive, illuminating a whole network of women who supported each other in rigidly sexist times. One great example: During World War II, the chemical used to bleach cotton became unavailable; McCardell learned this from textile mill owner Hope Skillman, who apologized for the “dingy off-white” material she was producing as a result. “McCardell didn’t think it was so bad; she saw it as a creamy, mellow color and began using it, helping establish a trend for the color now known as ‘bone.’”

Debut biographer Dickinson digs up buried treasure in this essential and inspiring account.