Fashion designer Claire McCardell liberated the American woman. Generally considered the founder of American sportswear, McCardell championed a confident optimism for womenswear in the decades when women were experiencing a tidal change in their roles in and outside the home.

Her clothes were democratic in both form and price. She gave women clothes they could live, entertain, and work in, cutting silhouettes in clean, flattering lines. Moreover, her clothes were mass-produced and made entirely accessible to American women.

McCardell graduated from Parsons in 1928 after spending a year studying in Paris. Four years later, she began designing for Townley Frocks with much success, and within a decade, her name appeared on the label.

Her training in French houses attuned her to expert cutting and innovative techniques. Yet she turned away from haute couture’s expensive formality, realizing that the American woman needed new garments for a post-war future.

McCardell iconic designs, like the Monastic dress, were a loose, shapeless dress that could be belted, and the “Popover,” an unstructured wrap-around dress that could be worn over something else. They are staples of American sportswear to this day. At the time she presented them, these styles were revolutionary.

She proved that delicate, chic womenswear could retain long-lasting, versatile functionality as well as energetic femininity. In her own words, “casual never means careless.”

If McCardell’s clothes may not seem distinctive today, it’s only because they’ve been so seamlessly integrated into the fabric and DNA of American sportswear.

In 1955, McCardell was featured on the cover of Time’s feature on American fashion, the same year her book What Shall I Wear? was released.

In 1994, the designer’s work was the subject of an exhibition hosted at Parsons, and four years later, FIT hosted another retrospective of the designer.