What Shall I Wear?

McCardell Claire McCardell

Description

First published in 1956, What Shall I Wear? is revolutionary fashion designer Claire McCardell's collection of fashion wisdom and philosophy, and a vivacious guide to looking effortlessly stylish. This new edition of the sought-after classic features a foreword by iconic designer Tory Burch and a color insert of photos from McCardell's collections. "The testament to great design, Claire McCardell's dresses look fresh, contemporary, and desirable eight decades after they were made, as the Costume Institute's 2022 exhibit In America: An Anthology of Fashion demonstrated." -Nicole Phelps, global director, Vogue Runway and Vogue Business "Among the many surprises and insights I discovered in McCardell's valuable book is that she wanted to call it Fashion is Fun. That may also be the secret behind her genius and enduring influence-she refused to take fashion too seriously." -Cathy Horyn, New York Magazine "The first designer to create a cohesive vision rooted in the American lifestyle of ease, McCardell and her contributions as a designer and a woman in business are often overlooked. Tory Burch's new foreword . . .puts this American treasure in her rightful place." -Constance White, fashion editor and author of How to Slay: Inspiration from the Queens and Kings of Black Style "Claire McCardell's guiding philosophy of dressing with ease in afunctional, fashionable American look was groundbreaking-and feminist-for her times. And it continues to resonate globally on the runways and in closets today." -Booth Moore, executive editor, Women's Wear Daily

Sujets

• USA
• History of fashion design
• États-Unis

Informations

• Publié par: ABRAMS BOOKS
• Date de parution: 30 août 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781647009229
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Editor: Rebecca Kaplan
Managing Editor: Glenn Ramirez
Design Manager: Darilyn Lowe Carnes
Production Manager: Kathleen Gaffney
This edition typography, design, and layout copyright 2012
The Rookery Press
Foreword Tory Burch LLC
Afterword Allison Tolman
Cover 2022 Abrams
Published in 2022 by Abrams Image, an imprint of ABRAMS. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022933029
ISBN: 978-1-4197-6383-0
eISBN: 978-1-64700-922-9
Abrams books are available at special discounts when purchased in quantity for premiums and promotions as well as fundraising or educational use. Special editions can also be created to specification. For details, contact [e-mail] or the address below.
Abrams Image is a registered trademark of Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
ABRAMS The Art of Books 195 Broadway, New York, NY 10007 abramsbooks.com
CONTENTS
Foreword by Tory Burch
1. What Is Fashion?
2. Make Your Own Fashion
3. Your Collection of Little Things
4. Don t Buy a Basic Coat-Collect
5. Let Mrs. Jones Keep Up with You
6. Is It the Fault of the Dress?
7. Where Do Fashion Trends Come From?
8. Don t Let the Dress Run Away with You
9. Dressing Up and Dressing Down
10. Discipline of Clothes
11. Real Sport Clothes-Or Don t Let the Fish See You
12. Journey Proud
13. She s Using Her Bangs for Eyebrows
14. Dear Miss McCardell . . . My daughter insists on wearing . . .
15. Fashion Has No Last Chapter
M C CARDELLISMS
Afterword by Allison Tolman
About the Authors
FOREWORD by Tory Burch
One of the things I love most about fashion is that it can make you feel differently-more confident, more beautiful, more like you . Claire McCardell understood this when she said dress for yourself -not for anyone else. This was radical in the 1940s, when she had genuinely invented American sportswear and revolutionized the way we dress. Her designs instilled a sense of freedom, encouraged self-expression, and empowered women with a casual elegance that is as relevant today as it was seventy-five years ago.
So many of McCardell s ideas and innovations are taken for granted now: zippers on skirts, wrap dresses, ballet flats, spaghetti straps, dolman sleeves, mix-and-match separates. She was the first designer to put pockets on a dress, and she used hooks and eyes in lieu of corsets to define the waist. While other designers looked to Paris couture for inspiration, McCardell elevated the practical needs of American women. She gave them fabrics that were soft and durable, sleeves that could be rolled up, and silhouettes that moved with the body, not against it. Everything was intentional, nothing was frivolous, and comfort was as vital as glamour.
I first discovered McCardell as an art history student at the University of Pennsylvania, but I ve been particularly drawn to her work in recent years. What s amazing to me is how her clothes let women feel unencumbered-elegant, yet at ease as they moved through their busy days. I love that McCardell was a contrarian, using jersey and cotton for evening gowns and borrowing denim, rivets, and topstitching from men s workwear. She broke rules with her own style as well, tying ribbons and shoelaces around her neck instead of pearls. In this charming book, which has been updated for the first time in decades, she encourages women to take similar risks, to have fun with fashion, and to make it their own-a mantra as timeless as her popover dress.
Unsurprisingly, women wore McCardell s clothes to shreds. I learned this when I visited the Maryland Center for History and Culture (MCHC) in Baltimore, home to one of the largest archives of McCardell s oeuvre, including letters, journals, and transcripts of interviews donated by her family after her death in 1958. There are thirty original McCardell pieces-some from her own wardrobe-but only thirty, because women truly lived in her clothes.
It isn t an exaggeration to say she has inspired every designer, and I think she deserves far more recognition. In addition to starting her own business in the forties, McCardell was the first American woman to print her name on her clothing labels-not the manufacturer s. I hope this book will educate the next generation about her ingenuity and her remarkable entrepreneurial spirit.
I can t overstate McCardell s impact on me as a designer, and I feel it s important to help preserve her legacy. We ve established the Tory Burch Claire McCardell Fashion Fellowship at the MCHC, which will give a professional in the museum field the opportunity to create an exhibition on the designer s life and work. The exhibit will highlight her significance not only to American fashion, but to women s history.
On that note, it s critical to point out that for all the great style advice in What Shall I Wear? this book includes some dated language that today s reader will find antiquated at best, offensive at worst. There are cultural stereotypes, diet and exercise tips that we now recognize as body shaming, and archaic suggestions about dressing for your husband s tastes rather than your own. At several moments, I questioned, Is this really what Claire believed? A conversation with the MCHC team revealed that, in fact, there were two voices at work here. According to the original manuscript, McCardell brought in a ghostwriter-a standard practice at the time, and necessary as McCardell was running her business and battling cancer when What Shall I Wear? came together. In her notes and early drafts of the book, McCardell s voice is witty and modern, reflecting her desire to free women through her clothes. However, the ghostwriter, Edith Heal, had quite traditional views about femininity; Allison Tolman, the vice president of collections at the MCHC, explains this in the book s useful afterword.
In today s context, the book s flaws are a striking reminder of where women were in the forties and fifties, but they re also a testament to how far we ve come. Of course, our work won t be done until everyone can live-and dress-by their own rules. I m of the belief that if we don t know history, we re bound to repeat it, and if McCardell were here now, I think she would give What Shall I Wear? a major revise. We wouldn t just be on the same page, she would be turning the next one for us all-no doubt an even greater champion of women, creating even more beautiful clothes to uplift and empower us.
CHAPTER 1
WHAT IS FASHION?
What is Fashion? What do I really know about it? And who am I to tell about it?
I who love some twenty-year-old dresses far better than the latest look. I who must nevertheless have new clothes, and want them, and look forward to everything that does with them. The excitement of a new line . . . the feel of the right color . . . the eternal chances I know I m going to take with material and texture and places and people-all mixed up with clothes. And the fun of it all.
Fashion should be fun, and whenever I am tempted to take it too seriously, if I design something that asks for a pedestal in the Museum of Modern Art, I am tumbled down to earth by the blunt voice of a buyer: Where would you wear it? And mentally I applaud because I believe that clothes are for real, live women, not for pedestals. They are made to be worn, to be lived in. Not to walk around on models with perfect figures.
But to go on trying to find out what fashion is:
Fashion is elusive .
Some people have it without knowing it-some people know it without having it. Consider the peasant girl who knows how to tie her kerchief. Consider the art student who doesn t-even though she s majoring in Fashion Design.
What you do with Fashion makes it Fashion. The right proportion, this much red, this much white, this much blue; it makes flags and it makes well-dressed women. The right combination counts. And you can t look it up in the dictionary. The right shoes, the right hat, the right bag, the extra color, the necklace or scarf-or the thing that made you think of it all. There are no permanent rules. A fashion that is here today may be gone tomorrow-and back the next day. But I can promise you that if you use your eyes, train your eyes, you will soon learn to recognize the woman with a sense of Fashion.
Fashion is contradictory .
I hate anything that looks too new in a brassy sense-but I can t imagine not trying new color combinations, new ways to tie a sash, new hats, new angles . . . even new postures. Moving my waistline around-up, down-or deciding to have none at all.
Fashion makes rules .
Hems-by day, by night, when short, when long, in what year? And does eight inches or twelve from the floor look the same on all women no matter what shape they are, what heel-height they re wearing? Of course not. So . . .
Fashion breaks rules .
Be flexible, it warns you. Keep a stern eye on yourself. Where do jackets end in the Fashion magazines? Where should they end on you? Waist-length, hip-length, finger-tip, tunic? Obviously something besides Fashion reportage enters into your choice of clothes. The Fashion magazines might not have mentioned the bolero-but this short little miracle that avoids the waistline is a wonderful way to disguise the less-than-perfect dimension.
Fashion is a calendar, a clock, a date-book, a quiz program .
Short gloves, eight-button, twelve-button-and don t forget the really long white ones for a ball. Fashion tells you which to buy for when, for where. What goes with what? But why? And who says so? The last question is important. People without a sense of fun, of dash, of whim, may misunderstand Fashion. If your maiden aunt finds a ladybug on the lapel of your suit unamusing, don t blame the maiden aunt. Blame yourself. You have worn the ladybug fo