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Suit

Designer Claire McCardell American
Manufacturer Townley Frocks American
early 1950s
Not on view
The wrapping and tying basic to fashion were appreciated by McCardell, and she personally inflected these design elements. A wrapped collar can add personality, even on a fitted garment. Such a collar is mutable according to the individual who wears it and changeable according to the occasion to which it is worn. In addition to McCardell, high-style designers of the period, most notably Pauline Trigère, employed the same motif, and it is continued today, in the work of such American designers as Geoffrey Beene, Donna Karan, and Isabel Toledo and also in that of Issey Miyake and Rei Kawakubo for Comme des Garçons. The use of elements with provisional possibilities remains an animating factor, a final gesture akin to the flourish of an artist's signature

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Suit
  • Designer: Claire McCardell (American, 1905–1958)
  • Manufacturer: Townley Frocks (American, 1929–1938; 1940–ca. 1968)
  • Date: early 1950s
  • Culture: American
  • Medium: linen, cotton
  • Credit Line: Gift of Irving Drought Harris, in memory of Claire McCardell Harris, 1958
  • Object Number: C.I.58.49.6a, b
  • Curatorial Department: The Costume Institute

More Artwork

More Artwork
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Playsuit, Claire McCardell American, Cotton, metal, American
Playsuit
Claire McCardell
1948
Sunglasses, Claire McCardell American, plastic, American
Sunglasses
Claire McCardell
ca. 1955
Raincoat, Claire McCardell American, cotton, plastic, American
Raincoat
Claire McCardell
ca. 1956
Beach cover-up, Claire McCardell American, silk, American
Beach cover-up
Claire McCardell
ca. 1953
Evening ensemble, Claire McCardell American, linen, cotton, American
Evening ensemble
Claire McCardell
ca. 1950

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