Avery Trufelman

Middle and upper class women were suffering because now they had to do their own housework.

The families that used to hire an immigrant girl to do all the cooking and cleaning now couldn't.

Claire herself had to learn how to cook for the first time, and she actually got really into it.

She took cooking lessons.

She got quite good.

But this is why women were suffering, quote-unquote, because they needed clothes that they could both cook and entertain in.

You can see this in Harper's Bazaar.

There's a spread featuring a socialite wife of a polo player.

That's where Clara came in, with her brand new dress.

It's called the popover because you could pop it over your clothes.

It was a little wraparound dress, cute, charming, which could easily slip on for getting a little messier.

Earlier versions even had an oven mitt attached.

And the oven mitt is like attached with a string to the actual dress.

And as April reminded me, it's not just an oven mitt.

That mitt could be used to prod logs in the fire.

It's anything.

And the popover was affordable, especially compared to some of McArdle's designs she had made before the war.

Oh, my God, that's $582 today.

So, Julie Elber says, many, many people sewed their own popovers.

Claire McArdle encouraged this.