Claire McCardell, Mid-Century designer was one of the founding mothers of American sportswear, did many firsts.
She was the first designer to put a bag in a dress that wasn’t for cleaning the house. The first to embrace the capsule wardrobe, using gingham for evening wear and denim for day wear, to popularize flat ballet, has her name on her label.
Buy now | Our best subscriptions now have a special price
And she was one of the first to put her dress philosophy to paper, offering what may still be the best guidebook on how to navigate a wardrobe that has been written.
With the title “What will I wear?” and first published in 1956, the slim has now been reissued by Abrams in a new edition with a preface by Tory Burch, who made it his mission to put McCardell’s name like Saint Laurent in his mind. everyone’s imagination. (Burch also created a fellowship dedicated to McCardell’s work at the Maryland Center for History and Culture in Baltimore, home to the McCardell archives.)
And although McCardell’s work is also somewhat fleeting thanks to the current Metropolitan Museum of America fashion sumptuous, featuring important often overlooked but important American designers (mostly women and designers of color), the book provides proof of concept in a completely easy way. more approachable, more contemporary.
Cover of the book “What Will I Wear?” By Claire McCardell (Source: Tory Burch via The New York Times)
Indeed, in an age that has seen the rise of branded glossy coffee table themes, not to mention endless outfit tips from TikTok and YouTube influencers, it has could prove the essential text for anyone struggling with the basic question of what to wear to go back to work or school – or for anyone who wakes up in the morning and stares into the closet. their clothes.
It’s not just because much of the advice inside is witty, or because there are practical suggestions on how to shop and order. meditation about the importance of comfortable shoes and investing in clothing. But because McCardell is focused on prioritizing the individual over the industry as a whole. Beyond that, she’s just as good at aphorisms as Diana Vreeland, the purveyor of fashion’s most famous bras, though McCardell has more functional uses.
For example, consider a few selection excerpts: “If fashion seems to be saying something that doesn’t work for you, ignore it.” “If you’re smart, you’ll forget the labels and look for wrinkles.” Also my personal favorite: “Your job is not to find clothes as much as to find yourself.”
Right.
McCardell doesn’t drink the Champagne of fashion; she remixed it. That’s the attitude that shows up in her book – and it’s in her clothes. That, like anything, is integral in determining the difference between the American style, with its emphasis on utility and ease, and the more authoritarian top-down European style. . And that still resonates to this day.
A pleated sweater dress by Claire McCardell with ruffled sleeves, designed in 1948. (Source: Maryland Center for History and Culture via The New York Times)
As McCardell wrote, “I like to think of sportswear as uninfluenced by Paris – clothing with their own influence.” In other words, clothes are influencers before influencers. Although the influencers themselves can learn something from the book.
The only time the text seems complicated is when it gets mired in the gender politics of its day. These days, “You’ll be the center of attention at eight o’clock when you take your husband to the train and go on a marketing trip,” can be a bit difficult to swallow. However, update the words to “You’ll be in the spotlight at eight when you get on the train and go to work,” and they fit perfectly.
In the new afterword to the book, Allison Tolman, vice president of collections and translations for the Maryland Center, suggests that the lady’s appendix is the work of Edith Heal, McCardell’s magic writer, trying to Filter out the designer’s conspicuous independent tendencies through a more appetizing sense. 1950s lenses. This may be true; Other works by Heal include “The Young CEO’s Wife: Your Work and Your Husband.” Either way, it’s not enough to detract from the appeal and currency of McCardell’s book.
Besides, “What will I wear?” turned out to be part of something else fashion trend, one in which designers are setting themselves up as vocal book promoters.
Along with Burch, peers who have found inspiration in print include Kim Jones of Fendi and Dior Men’s, who is an irresistible collector of classics (he has more than 20,000) and The first Fendi collection was a tribute to the Bloomsbury set. Add to the list: Joseph Altuzarra, who collaborated with Penguin Classics during the height of the pandemic and came up with popular themes like “The Odyssey” and “Moby-Dick” stuffed with cloths like Literary equivalent of mood tables ever since.
Also, Valentino’s Pierpaolo Piccioli, who last year supported nine independent bookstores in the United States with an ad campaign based entirely on narrative text to evoke ideas and emotions, rather than clothing. . And Bottega Veneta’s Matthieu Blazy, who will be collaborating with bookstore The Strand on this season’s New York Fashion Week, curated his reading list of favorite books and designed a special trilogy. tote bag.
Blazy calls The Strand “almost a recurring motif throughout my life.”
It’s always his first stop in New York City, he said. “It always reaffirmed to me why physics books are so important,” he said. “It’s always been a space of discovery with a constant joy of surprises and finding something new.”
There’s something about the book’s materiality and the author’s style that finds common ground with the catwalk. If in doubt, just spend some time with McCardell, whose advice resonates with the mind, not just the house – and these days it costs less than a tube of lipstick.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
For more lifestyle news, follow us on Instagram | Twitter | Facebook and don’t miss the latest updates!
