Claire McCardell

In 1942 Harper’s Bazaar challenged Claire McCardell to design something you could clean the house in and then wear to a cocktail party. Her answer was the Popover Dress, a plain grey cotton wrap dress sold with a matching potholder that fitted in the pocket. It cost $6.95, and more than 75,000 sold in the first season.

She grew up in Frederick, Maryland, and studied at Parsons in New York and at its Paris branch, where students bought samples by Madeleine Vionnet and took them apart to see how they were built. Her Monastic Dress of 1938, a loose bias-cut dress shaped by a belt, was copied so widely that fighting the knock-offs put her employer, Townley Frocks, out of business.

The Second World War cut American designers off from Paris, and McCardell did well out of it. She already worked with denim, calico and wool jersey, which were easy to get. With leather in short supply, she had Capezio make ballet flats to match her clothes. Lord & Taylor promoted her as an “American Look” designer from 1945.

When you look at her clothes, look for the practical details: pockets in everything up to evening gowns, side zips so a woman could dress without help, no corsets. She was on the cover of Time in 1955. Diagnosed with cancer in 1957, she finished her last collection from a hospital bed and died in 1958, aged 52.