Remembering Claire McCardell

Claire McCardell was born 121 years ago today, May 24th.

The Monastic Dress

I first learned about Claire McCardell in 2018 when I read an article in The New York Times about an exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art called, "Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination." Her Monastic Dress was on display. The Monastic Dress from 1938 was simple like a monk's cassock and you could tie a rope around the waist, up or down, to add shape. Claire McCardell wore one in red at the Townley store, and by chance a buyer saw her and bought 100 dresses. They sold out, and the success of this dress earned McCardell her own label.

The picture book, Claire: The Little Girl Who Climbed to the Top and Changed the Way Women Dress, was published on what would have been McCardell’s 116th birthday, May 24, 2021. Mary Ryan Reeves, my illustrator, and I also created a companion coloring book, Claire’s Closet to show children the progression of Claire’s designs to our modern sportswear.

Mary Ryan Reeves models a McCardell design. An illustration from the coloring book which a child is coloring.

Since we published the children's picture book five years ago, more than a few wonderful moments have happened.

• Five months after the publication of our books, the Frederick Art Club unveiled their bronze statue, exquisitely sculpted by Sara Hempel Irani, on a beautiful October day at the east end of Carroll Creek Linear Park in downtown Frederick, Maryland.

• Then a year later, McCardell’s autobiography, What Shall I Wear? was republished. The popular designer Tory Burch wrote the introduction, and she appeared on "Good Morning America" to speak about McCardell’s influence on her.

• Then The Maryland Center for History and Culture opened its Claire McCardell exhibit in November 2022. Tory Burch established a scholarship at the Center in honor of McCardell.

• In June of 2025, Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson published the first biography about McCardell, The Designer Who Set Women Free. Dickinson went on a book tour, and here is one of her recent panel discussions.

• More recently, in March, when I gave a Hutton House lecture on her at Long Island University, the grandson of Henry Geiss, the co-founder of Townley Frocks, was in my class. He had met McCardell when he was 12 years old.

• And earlier this month, as part of the USA 250th Anniversary and the Maryland Mosaic, the Frederick Art Club held an exhibition. They also hosted a reading of the book while children gathered to color some pages out of the coloring book filled with her designs. Mary Ryan Reeves held up the enlarged designs, as her husband John Reeves read aloud to the crowd.

McCardell is credited with creating American sportswear, and those in the fashion industry know very well who she is. But for the rest of us women, well, we probably never thought twice about the history of pockets and ballet flats and separates. After her death in 1958, her family did not continue her brand; however, her style continued to influence such designers as Donna Karan, Isaac Mizrahi, Michael Kors and Diane von Furstenberg. Donna Karan, for example, created "Seven Easy Pieces."

Learn about Claire McCardell

You can find our picture book and our coloring book about Claire McCardell online at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Target, Walmart, or by asking your favorite independent bookseller to order it for you.

Picture Book, Claire, illustration of young Claire with seamstress Annie, and Coloring Book, Claire's Closet