Claire McCardell: The Girl Who Defied Dior, Part II

Dressed: The History of Fashion

Dressed Media

Society & Culture, Fashion & Beauty, History, Arts

4.6 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 8 August 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In part-two of our 2022 exploration of the career of American fashion designer Claire McCardell, we discuss her work during WWII which yielded some of her most iconic designs. For additional reading, check out Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson's recently released biography Claire McCardell: The Designer Who Set Women Free (2025). Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion? Our website and classes Our Instagram Our bookshelf with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Dressed is a part of the AirWave Media network Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Dress listeners, Bonjour from Paris.
0:03.3	Yes, we are currently on our annual summer hiatus from the show as we conduct our summer fashion
0:08.7	history tours of the City of Lights.
0:10.9	But worry not, we will be back in August with brand new content dedicated to all of the
0:15.0	exciting fashion history exhibitions and other behind-the-scenes experiences we have encountered
0:19.9	well here.
0:21.1	Until then, please enjoy this episode from the Dressed Archive of over 500 past shows.
0:26.4	Dress, the history of fashion, is a production of Dress Media.
0:34.7	With over 8 billion people in the world, we all have one thing in common.
0:39.0	Every day, we all get dressed.
0:41.5	Welcome to Dressed, the history of fashion, a podcast that explores the who-what win of why we wear.
0:47.5	We are friends, fashion historians, and your host, Cassie Zachary, and April Callahan.
0:54.0	Dressed listeners, welcome to part two of our two-part episode on one of my favorite all-time designers.
1:01.6	And Cass, I am apparently not alone in this sentiment.
1:05.9	Claire McCartle has been called the Designers Designer, as her work remains adored by top contemporary designers, even today.
1:14.1	American designers, including Isaac Mishrahi,
1:16.5	Cynthia Rowley, Norma Kamali, and Anna Sui
1:19.6	have all been very vocal in the press
1:21.7	about their admiration for McCartle's work.
1:24.5	And in an article from the New York Times in 1998, Sweet called McCartle's
1:29.6	clothes, quote, a revelation, adding that, quote, what I truly appreciate was her fabric
1:35.5	sensibility. Even with more constructed fabrics like denim, she made them look so soft and drapey.
	...

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