When did the United States establish a foothold in global fashion? Nancy MacDonell argues that it was during the Second World War, when the New York fashion industry was shut off from the influence of Paris. By the time the war was over, a number of American designers had made a name for themselves in the US and began to achieve global recognition. Claire McCardell is the main example of this new direction. The book also shows the army of advocates needed to cement a new direction. She examines department store directors Marjorie Griswold and Dorothy Shaver; fashion journalists Virginia Pope and Lois Long; the publicist Eleanor Lambert; as well as magazine editor Diana Vreeland and her photographer Louise Dahl-Wolfe. Together they all created the “American Look,” casual sportswear which eventually took the world by storm.
I loved this book for its detailed examination of all the moving parts of the fashion industry, from a designer’s first choice of fabric to a dress’s arrival in the department store. Although she chooses Claire McCardell as her main example, a careful reader can discover many other important figures in clothing design. It is also a reminder that our fashion choices are mediated through many middlemen—or rather middlewomen—who filter what we see. MacDonell documents a unique moment in American fashion history when the whole edifice of the New York fashion industry was dominated by women—the empresses of Seventh Avenue.
Nonetheless, this book has a narrow focus that gives pride of place to the consequences of the Second World War. Distinctive American design trends began long before then, as Rebecca Arnold’s book The American Look has shown. Although MacDonell acknowledges this, she gives it little credit. Moreover, American fashion did not originate in New York alone. What about California? Blue jeans came from there and West Coast women were wearing separates long before McCardell supposedly invented them. A powerful argument could be made for the fact that America’s signature—sportswear—originated in California and not New York.
But don’t let my West Coast chauvinism stop you from reading this lively and informative book. Just remember that there is more to the fashion world than New York and Paris.
