Claire McCardell: The Girl Who Defied Dior, part 2

Dressed: The History of Fashion

Dressed Media

History, Society & Culture, Fashion & Beauty, Arts

4.6 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 28 July 2022

⏱️ 29 minutes

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Summary

In part-two of our exploration of the career of American fashion designer Claire McCardell, we discuss her work during WWII which yeilded some of her most iconic designs. Additional Reading: Nolf, Nancy and Kohle Yohannan. Claire McCardell: Redefining Modernism. New York: Abrams, 1998. Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion? Our website and classes Our Instagram Our bookshelf with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Dress, the history of fashion, is a production of iHeart Radio.
0:22.8	With over 7 billion people in the world, we all have one thing in common.
0:26.7	Every day, we all get dressed. Welcome to Dress, the history of fashion, a podcast that explores
0:32.0	the who, what, when, of why we wear. We are fashion historians and your hosts, Cassie Zachary
0:38.0	and April Callahan. Dress listeners, welcome to part two of our two part episode on one of my
0:45.6	favorite all-time designers. And Cass, I am apparently not alone in this sentiment, Claremocardole
0:52.5	has been called the designer's designer. As her work remains adored by top contemporary designers,
0:58.8	even today, American designers, including Isaac Ms. Rahi, Cynthia Raleigh, Norma Kamali,
1:04.6	and Anna Svi have all been very vocal in the press about their admiration for McCartle's work.
1:10.4	And in an article from the New York Times in 1998, Svi called McCartle's clothes, quote,
1:16.4	a revelation, adding that quote, what I truly appreciate was her fabric sensibility.
1:22.8	Even with more constructed fabrics like denim, she made them look so soft and drapey.
1:27.8	The thing is, you look at some of the things she did and you can't believe it was the 1940s.
1:32.7	You really can't. So innovative and ahead of their time. And this is perhaps why McCartle is the
1:38.1	direct inspiration for Tori Birch's Spring Summer 2022 line. Talking about this collection, Birch says,
1:44.8	quote, I was in a class on women in history and I was blown away by her fearlessness.
1:49.9	She was such an innovator and completely broke the mold. She went against everything that was
1:54.2	happening in fashion throughout the 40s and 50s and it goes without saying that American sportswear
1:59.0	is the way it is because of her. Indeed. And Cass, that Birch collection I have to say is really
2:05.3	wonderful. You can see the homage to McCartle and its fresh simplicity and her fabric choices for
2:11.6	sure. And earlier this week, we covered McCartle's early career and some of the key elements of her
2:17.5	design philosophy. That would be in part one of this two part episode. So if you haven't already
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