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Claire McCardell was an American fashion designer of ready-to-wear and she designed stylish and affordable clothing in the twentieth century. She was credited with the creation of American sportswear and American look in general.
She can be better pictured as a realistic not an artist or an architect of fashion and was known for simple, frugal, humble easy to make and always easy to wear clothes. They were not, however, necessarily easy to design. In fact McCardell had a strong influence from French couture and she carefully studied the work of Madeleine Vionnet and Mme Grès.
World war II undoubtedly helped American designers, including McCardell, because they were cut off from French fashion by the Nazi Occupation of Paris and American manufacturers and department stores were desperate for homegrown talent.
The primary characteristics of McCardell’s style include her signature metal fastening (such as brass hooks and eyes), double rows of topstitching, spaghetti string ties, long saches, wrap and tie separates, and menswear details. She has an affinity for so-called common materials, such as denim and calico, as well as the latest in high-tech performance fabrics, such as stain-proof and elasticized stretch cottons. The use of culotte trousers, rather than a skirt, is obviously a functional design component that maximizes freedom of movement in opposition to the shoulder pads, corsets, and heavy construction, preferring self wrap-and-tie styles.
By giving women “freedom” sports clothes helped make them “independent” they were i fact more suited to a dynamic woman than to a young bourgeois who takes tea with her friends.
Words to spend about her cannot be resumed in a few words and she deserves sharp attention as she reinvented the travel wardrobe by avoiding women dragging trunks to go on vacation and she revolutionized the boutique concept by designing clothes in six separate pieces to combine together she allowed to create different looks instead of having one piece suit or dress.
