Claire McCardell:
The Designer Who
Set Women Free 

New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2025

A Best Book of 2025: NPR, Time, The Washington Post, Kirkus

Amazon Editor’s Choice for Best History

Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction Longlist

The riveting hidden history of Claire McCardell—the most influential fashion designer you've never heard of.

Claire McCardell forever changed fashion—and most importantly, the lives of women. She shattered cultural norms around women’s clothes, and today much of what we wear traces back to her ingenious, rebellious mind. McCardell invented ballet flats and mix-and-match separates, and she introduced wrap dresses, hoodies, leggings, denim, and more into womenswear. She tossed out corsets in favor of a comfortably elegant look and insisted on pockets, even as male designers didn’t see a need for them. She made zippers easy to reach because a woman “may live alone and like it,” McCardell once wrote, “but you may regret it if you wrench your arm trying to zip a back zipper into place.”

After World War II, McCardell fought the severe, hyper-feminized silhouette championed by male designers, like Christian Dior. Dior claimed that he wanted to “save women from nature.” McCardell, by contrast, wanted to set women free. Claire McCardell became, as the young journalist Betty Friedan called her in 1955, “The Gal Who Defied Dior.”

Filled with personal drama and industry secrets, this story reveals how Claire McCardell built an empire at a time when women rarely made the upper echelons of business. At its core, hers is a story about our right to choose how we dress—and our right to choose how we live.

Praise & Reviews

"In her exceptional biography, Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson puts the American fashion icon Claire McCardell back in the pantheon... I fervently hope that Dickinson’s marvelous, necessary book will return her to the mainstream."
—Kate Bolick, for The New York Times Book Review

“Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson’s lively biography of this pioneering but underrecognized designer also serves as a vivid sketch of midcentury feminist history: to make great strides, women had to be able to move, and McCardell gave them the clothes to do it.”
—Stephanie Zacharek, Time “100 Must-Read Books of 2025”

“Lively and psychologically astute.”
—Julia Turner, The Atlantic

“A smart, insightful biography.”
—Karen Heller,The Washington Post

“A sparkling tribute...Now [McCardell] finally gets her crown in Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson’s delightful biography.”
—Kitty Kelley, for the Washington Independent Review of Books

"[An] excellent, delightfully readable biography… Debut biographer Dickinson digs up buried treasure in this essential and inspiring account."
—Kirkus (starred review)

“In the hands of Dickinson, this is more than just the biography of a fashion revolutionary: It is a story of the fight for women’s identity and, incidentally, the birth of an American industry.”
—The New York Times

"This entertaining biography shows how McCardell found her way to creative and business leadership in a world where women couldn’t even open their own bank accounts. There are few things in our closets that don’t show the influence of Claire McCardell [and] this account delights in details. "
—Marion Winik, Oprah Daily

“This biography is as appealing and clever as McCardell’s designs.”
—Maggie Lange, W

“Deft with telling details… Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson’s Claire McCardell: The Designer Who Set Women Free—the first comprehensive McCardell biography—is so welcome.”
—Laura Jacobs, The Wall Street Journal

"A terrific, well-written biography of an American original. Dickinson...restores semi-forgotten American designer Claire McCardell to her rightful place in the fashion pantheon and in feminist history."
—Library Journal, starred review

"Dickinson debuts with an admiring biography of American fashion designer Claire McCardell [and] illustrates how fashion served as a mirror for sociopolitical change...Fashion aficionados won’t want to miss this. "
—Publisher’s Weekly

"The life and innovative work of American fashion designer Claire McCardell get well-deserved recognition in this biography by journalist Dickinson [who] engagingly integrates McCardell’s work and life with the evolution of the fashion industry and American society from the 1920s through the 1950s. Even the least fashion-conscious reader will appreciate learning about Claire McCardell’s accomplishments."
—Booklist

“Claire McCardell revolutionized the way we dress; everything was intentional, nothing was frivolous, and comfort was as vital as glamour. This book captures her remarkable ingenuity and entrepreneurial spirit, and it offers a new, intimate glimpse into the experiences, people, and places that shaped her perspective.”
—Tory Burch

"This is a timely and important book, a testimony to a powerful woman whose legacy might be lost if not for the prodigious scholarship of Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson. It's also just a darn good read." 

—Laura Lippman, New York Times bestselling author of Murder Takes a Vacation.

“A delightful, inspiring tale of a visionary designer. I loved it! Pockets in women’s clothes? Hoodies? Zippers? We all have Claire McCardell to thank. And now, because of Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson’s riveting new book, we will all know her name.” —Julie Satow, New York Times bestselling author of When Women Ran Fifth Avenue

“A beautifully spun story of resilience and tenacity. Dickinson brings to life the most important and underappreciated designer of the 20th Century.”
—Avery Trufelman, producer and host of the Articles of Interest podcast

"Claire McCardell tossed out the corsets and crinolines and changed the way women dress. This icon of mid-century modernism was the anti-Dior, and her life is a unique American drama of design, business, and sheer nerve. Today, her influence is so pervasive that we hardly see it."
—Ellen Lupton, curator emerita, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum 

“You’re gonna devour this [book] the same way I did.”
—Anne Helen Petersen, Culture Study

"An insightful, beautifully written tribute to a designer who was ahead of her time. In a world where women are still fighting for full agency, this book reminds us that fashion, at its best, is about freedom on our own terms. It’s an essential read."
—Susan Magsamen, New York Times bestselling co-author of Your Brain on Art.