Suit

Designer Claire McCardell American
Manufacturer Townley Frocks American

Not on view

Combining a high-waisted skirt with a cropped spencer-style jacket, McCardell recreated the Empire proportions, but with a sleek silhouette. By disturbing conventional proportions, McCardell fostered the interdependence of the two garments, though either one could theoretically stand separate from the other. Menswear, even down to smart dressing in the crisp manner of military spencers, obtained, as McCardell seized the vivid Stendhalian heroism of red and black.

Suit, Claire McCardell (American, 1905–1958), (a, b) wool
(c) silk, American

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