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Due to generous donations from her family members, the Maryland Historical Society, now Maryland Center for History and Culture (MCHC) has the largest collection of McCardell designs and papers in the world. Catherine Arthur, Chief Curator for the center, has continued to grow the collection, finding McCardell dresses everywhere from private donors to Etsy to the Met. As a result, visitors not only find the types of items you might expect to find in a regional museum—Native American artifacts, paintings, furniture, decorative objects, quilts, costumes, and documents—but also an extensive collection of clothing. 

Arthur explains, “We’ve really begun to make a name for ourselves as a repository for McCardell’s fashions.” The center accepts donations from all over the country because, regardless of whether the fashions have a Maryland provenance, they were created by a Maryland designer, so that opens the door to numerous sources. Another source of support for the collection came from designer Tory Burch, a huge fan of McCardell, who funded an internship in 2023. The intern, Robyn Levy, helped curate the exhibition and catalogue the collection. 

“The exhibit itself,” Vice President of External Affairs, David Belew explains, “is about two years old, but we have such a robust collection of McCardell clothes that we are able to fully rotate the show and still keep the same narrative framework.” He and Arthur note that clothing is not displayed for longer than a year due to the fading that can occur from light exposure and warping from sitting too long on mannequins.

Lucky for them—and us—there are plenty of McCardells on hand to share with the public. For example, the center owns multiple iterations of one of her most famous designs, the Popover. The dress, named by the department store Lord & Taylor in 1942, earned the moniker because women could simply “pop it over” whatever they had on—or wear it on its own with nothing underneath. It was essentially a wrap dress, a design that is often attributed to Diane von Furstenberg, but in fact originated with McCardell. 

The versatility of the Popover was characteristic of McCardell’s fashions. “The thing about Claire is she didn’t believe in changing the fashion so much each season that you had to keep buying clothes,” says Dickinson. “She was very consistent about the idea that if women like it and it works well for them, I’ll update it, but I hope that they just keep it for their whole lives.” 

The exhibit at MCHC highlights the way in which McCardell created variations of the design through fabric choice and subtle differences in the collar, sleeves, buttons, and other details. A favorite of Dickinson’s is a simple cotton in lime green with black buttons and a black crisscross pattern. The short sleeves and neckline are cut on the grain, creating sleek, clean lines. Another example is breezy white with grey stripes and a sash at the waist; its airy vibe makes one think of summer afternoons with cool glasses of lemonade. Yet another is a stately gray with a red floral pattern and a tidy belt. 

“One of the pieces I love in their collection,” says Dickinson, “is what looks to be an elegant, simple black evening gown. But in fact, it’s two pieces. And that was really part of her separates system. She invented something that’s now the cornerstone of American fashion.” The outfit is stunning: a halter top, a long, flowing skirt, and those characteristic sleek, clean lines.

A pale green dress with bright yellow and blue chevron pattern and puffed sleeves exemplifies McCardell’s exceptional use of textiles. Dickinson notes, “Her dresses often seem simple, but are really complex in their construction, as evidenced in the use of stripes on this dress.” The pattern is modern and bold, like something from the 1980s, again showing what a visionary McCardell was. 

The storage area in the basement of MCHC is packed with McCardell fashions, some boxed up out of sight, but others hanging in plain sight waiting to be stored. Belew notes that they were able to add a state-of-the-art storage facility as part of the capital campaign, allowing the organization’s entire collection to be kept onsite. Other aspects of the renovation include a children’s play area, a brand-new auditorium, and updated exhibition spaces. 

The Center has come a long way from its humble beginnings in 1844 when it was known as the Maryland Historical Society and was housed in the Baltimore City Post Office. A couple of relocations and several renovations later, the space now boasts 23,000 square feet and fifteen exhibition spaces. It is poised to complete its most recent renovations by mid-June. CEO Katie Caljean explains, “We’re trying to make our contiguous footprint work for us. Let’s live within the walls of our buildings that are connected to each other.” 

The first event that will grace MCHC’s stately new auditorium will be a full circle moment for Dickinson. It is the launch for her new book, Claire McCardell: The Designer Who Set Women Free. The biography is the first comprehensive look at the life and career of the woman who redefined women’s clothing. Although she was quite famous in her lifetime and is acknowledged as having essentially invented modern American women’s fashion, she is far less well-known today than her male counterparts.

Part of Dickinson’s goal in writing the biography was to introduce the public to a designer whose career was remarkable not only for her innovations but also for her ability to navigate—and ultimately overcome—the sexism that defined the era in which she lived and worked.

The seed for the biography was planted when Dickinson wrote an article for The Washington Post Magazine in 2018. “It was the anniversary of one of her most important pieces, the monastic dress,” she recalls. “I was interested in looking at a piece of material culture in this dress and writing about Claire on the anniversary of this dress. And it was then that I really started diving into the archives.” Dickinson admits that she was far from the first to write about McCardell: “There’s been a lot written about Claire over the years. She was wildly popular in her lifetime.” However, none of the existing work about McCardell addressed how it is that a woman from Frederick, Maryland in the 1920s and 30s was able to achieve what she did.

The dress about which Dickinson wrote in 2018 debuted in 1938 and was dubbed the “monastic” for its similarity to a cassock. While this might not sound particularly stylish, the comfort and simplicity of the dress allowed women to wear it in a variety of settings and to dress it up or down with accessories. It flowed loosely down and then was cinched at the waist with a belt or sash, allowing the skirt to puff out, creating a sophisticated and flattering silhouette. The design was a smash success that sold out repeatedly; it was affordable, functional, and versatile, offering “a solution to what a woman might wear in office settings and public places” (Dickinson 124). 

Clearly, McCardell was in touch with what contemporary women wanted in their closets, but getting to the point of being able to manufacture and share her styles was no easy feat. Women’s fashion was a man’s world. Nonetheless, McCardell produced hit after hit, persevering even as the industry initially balked at many of her designs.

It took time for her idea for separates to take hold. Ballet flats were rejected at first as ludicrous. Her design for a modern bathing suit was considered scandalous, especially compared to the norm which provided much more coverage and much less freedom of movement. In all these designs, McCardell demonstrated a great intuition about what women wanted, and even though the gatekeepers of fashion—largely men— rejected her ideas at first, women loved her designs.

Curiosity about how McCardell was able to navigate that world and ultimately carve out her own place in it drove much of Dickinson’s research, as did her interest in the intersection of fashion and feminism. “There is this forgotten feminism between the wars,” Dickinson says. “We kind of jump from suffragism to second wave feminism, but we forget about women like Claire, who in the 30s and 40s were literally mapping new terrain. They were all feminists, though they didn’t identify that way.” 

The extensive archives at MCHC were an integral part of Dickinson’s process, and she spent many long hours in the library with McCardell’s papers. Although there is an abundance of material, it had never been sorted into any kind of timeline until Dickinson began her research. “It started with me coming in and going through all her letters,” she says. “I transcribed every single letter in this collection, learning to read her handwriting. Part of what this allowed me to do was to map the timeline of her life. She didn’t date everything, but I was able to triangulate against other things in the collection and what I knew about where she was when.” 

The McCardell archive not only allowed Dickinson insight into the what and when of the designer’s life, but it also gave her a look into the who and the why. “This whole collection is not just seeing her, but seeing her in connection with Hemingway and Diana Vreeland and Joan Crawford and Greta Garbo. She was at the center of this entire cultural milieu.” 

Although McCardell is part of MCHC’s permanent collection and her fashions have been on exhibit for two years, there is something that feels particularly significant about showcasing her work and life at this moment in time. Just as McCardell’s generation was expected to stay home and focus on having children, women today are being told to have babies and take their husband’s names. “I think there’s something valuable,” Dickinson says, “in recognizing that we’ve been here before.”

She explains parallels between federal laws limiting women’s freedom during the Roosevelt administration to legislation and sentiment of the current one. “So we’re back in this place and I think it is heartening to remember this group of women that Claire was in the center of. . . she believed that women had a right to be equals in society and that women’s perspectives and women’s lives deserve to be fore-fronted.”

The Maryland Center for History and Culture will host the launch for Claire McCardell: The Designer Who Set Women Free on June 17 at 6:30pm in the newly renovated auditorium. Though this event is sold out, you can plan a visit to MCHC’s Claire McCardell exhibit here.

Find or order Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson’s book Claire McCardell: The Designer Who Set Women Free at your favorite local bookstore.

Header Image: Claire McCardell holding notepad, photograph by Wynn Richards, ca. 1945. Maryland Center for History and Culture, H. Furlong Baldwin Library, Claire McCardell, Photograph Collection, PP238.04.021