Who gets the right to dress women?
December 16, 2018 8:54 AM   Subscribe

McCardell’s creations contained an alchemy that so many of us still seek: the ability to command the narrative of our own bodies, and to be seen not as mere eye candy but as a person to be reckoned with. [sl WaPost]
posted by Lycaste (20 comments total) 41 users marked this as a favorite
 
For me this article is behind a paywall. Too bad, it sounded interesting. (USA, Windows 10, Chrome)
posted by seasparrow at 9:12 AM on December 16, 2018 [1 favorite]


Very interesting, indeed. And nothing has changed. See this article in today's Alternet: Keeping Tabs on Womens' Bodies. Thanks for posting.
posted by MovableBookLady at 9:21 AM on December 16, 2018


seasparrow: it should work for freebies in incognito.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 9:33 AM on December 16, 2018 [4 favorites]


I love McCardell's work and think it should come back in fashion. It has pockets!! It's comfortable!!

Also this Chanel quote about Dior makes me laugh:

“Only a man who never was intimate with a woman could design something that uncomfortable.”
posted by pangolin party at 9:50 AM on December 16, 2018 [12 favorites]


A great article to share! McCardell really was brilliant! She and I would have gotten along well! Durability, practicality beauty and POCKETS can be in the same outfit!
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 10:46 AM on December 16, 2018 [1 favorite]


He once told a reporter: “With these dames you don’t know where they get their inspiration. It may be from the crack in the wall.”
Or maybe from wearing the clothes. But, yeah, probably from a crack in the wall.
posted by clawsoon at 11:15 AM on December 16, 2018 [9 favorites]


Is anyone making those dresses now?-
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 11:24 AM on December 16, 2018 [2 favorites]


I very rarely wear dresses, being the masc flavor of genderfluid, but... I do have a small collection, and I'm fairly certain one of my older floral print ones is in that monastic style. It really is very comfortable. My added complication is due to my sensory processing disorder seams and darts are completely unwearable. It seems so revolutionary that the person wearing the clothes should be the one to design them- I would wear most of her creations. (well- once or twice a year anyways...)
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 11:31 AM on December 16, 2018 [3 favorites]


The Metropolitan Muesum of Art has a large collection of McCardell’s designs
posted by Sunday Morning at 12:49 PM on December 16, 2018 [7 favorites]


Wow! I cannot believe I've never heard of this woman. I am impressed by her sneaky attempts to get her designs out there when men with less vision but more power were holding her back.

I would love for whoever owns them to reissue like, 50% of the designs linked by Sunday Morning.

She was doing rompers!

This style, at least the top, I have absolutely seen on the red carpet.

This gorgeous dress looks absolutely current.

I would wear the hell out of this cape or this top.
posted by Emmy Rae at 12:59 PM on December 16, 2018 [7 favorites]


I realize that I have always been a McCardellite and didn't know it.
posted by nanook at 2:21 PM on December 16, 2018 [2 favorites]


I'm not very experienced or good at making dresses but by god I need to make myself a wool crepe monastic dress immediately, and my mom needs a book by or about her for Christmas; she was born in McCardell's lifetime and this kind of thing is her jam. This rules, thanks for posting.
posted by clavicle at 2:28 PM on December 16, 2018 [3 favorites]


God those monastic dresses are like Fortuny tea gowns except, you know, you can wear them on the street in the daytime.
posted by Hypatia at 2:35 PM on December 16, 2018 [1 favorite]


also the name monastic dress has the most fantastic, powerful energy, like hell yes I'm a monk, but a pretty monk, who also has shit to do
posted by clavicle at 2:39 PM on December 16, 2018 [7 favorites]


Her clothes show up periodically in the vintage shops I go to. They're not usually outrageously expensive, but they never fit me. There are also quite a few McCardell dressmaking patterns around. A few reproductions and for the very lucky, originals can be purchased on the resale market. McCardell patterns for Spadea issued a lot of her work--unfortunately, vintage Spadea patterns are hard to find and expensive (in my experience)

This wrap dress originally by McCardell for McCall is available in reproduction. I've never made it up, but it's pretty straightforward.

The Cloisters/Wedding Dress from the Met Collection was issued by Folkwear and is now out of print, but you can usually find it. It's pretty easy to make and really comfortable, but I find it wears more easily if you take some of the volume out of the skirt. It actually has no pockets but they are easy to add, even with the drop waist.
posted by crush at 3:20 PM on December 16, 2018 [4 favorites]


such great designs! thanks for posting, now I know who invented the ballet flat
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 7:07 PM on December 16, 2018 [1 favorite]




I just realized that one of my favorite Uniqlo dresses is basically referencing her monastic dress. I'm extra amused because I went with the blue version over the orange specifically so it wouldn't look like Buddhist monk robes.
posted by yeahlikethat at 9:40 PM on December 16, 2018 [1 favorite]


Orrick and McCardell pooled their money and bought haute couture from Vionnet during sample sales. McCardell disassembled the pieces, stitch by stitch, to learn how they were made before putting them back together again, “like a little boy with alarm clocks,” as a profile of McCardell would later recount.

This is the kind of thing that makes me question my value as a human. Why are some people so extraordinarily dedicated, and even... interested?

Looking for work during a sweltering New York summer, she lost out on one job because the man doing the hiring, she wrote home, “didn’t think I could work like a dog during this hot weather … and keep my clothes spruced up working from 9 to 5. He wanted someone to look like Park Avenue and work like Mott Street for nothing.”

I suppose this has never changed. A few years ago, I worked at a media company, and the interns were required to wear skirts and heels. The office was like a refrigerator, of course. In McCardell's time, relative to this quote at least, there would have been no air-conditioning, so that's a different sort of challenge.
posted by heatvision at 3:17 AM on December 17, 2018


I came in here prepared to scoff at the whole debate and say something along the lines of "women choose what women wear and everyone should get off my lawn it's 2018 is this still even up for debate".

Then I saw the pictures. Not only are those mostly gorgeous, they don't look constraining, difficult to get in/out of, or difficult to clean if you have a washing machine. In a world where I identified feminine, I could easily see myself wearing McCardell's designs, and maybe even continuing to create things in the spirit of what she designed.

Then I read Today, few women reach the heights that McCardell did. Dior’s fashion brand didn’t appoint a woman as creative director until 2016. For Givenchy, founded in 1952, it was 2017. Women spend three times the amount of money on clothes as men, yet they helm only 14 percent of the top womenswear brands.

Get back on my lawn, kids, we gotta talk.
posted by saysthis at 5:00 AM on December 17, 2018 [2 favorites]


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