Claire Mccardell

An independent, pioneering, resolutely American attitude toward the world and, specifically toward fashion, formed the sturdy design backbone of Claire McCardell (1905-1958). Today we credit McCardell as having created an American style of casual dress in the twentieth century that was without precedent.

But at a time when every American designer of note was sent to Paris to copy the latest styles, McCardell shrugged off the Paris couture industry, refusing, after 1940, to visit the collections or even to look at Paris design for fear it might influence her. In Claire McCardell: Redefining Modernism, coauthors Kohle Yohannan and Nancy Nolf have told a story that is as much biography as it is fashion history.

The 103 photos include many of the designer wearing her clothes, for McCardell was her own muse and fit model.