April Callahan

There was an Algerian costume that so intrigued her that she made it up in a red woolen dress along the same loose lines, belting it with a black leather belt.

Success breeds imitation.

Copies under various names have appeared all over the country at prices ranging from the obviously cheap to the extravagantly expensive.

This is the phenomenon that this dress spurred.

This is 1939.

Yeah.

Claire McArdle, dress designer for Hattie Carnegie, predicted a swing away from the voluptuously feminine figure towards a boyish slenderness.

Quote, wartime always ushers in a feeling for uniforms in fashion, she said.

She did design uniforms, yeah.

She designed Red Cross uniforms at one point.

That is amazing.

So you don't lose it.

It could be used in the kitchen.

It could be used in the garden.

It could be used doing chores.

So it really was an all-purpose style.

Claire brought it back year after year after year after year in various different incarnations and in varying levels of formality.