Avery Trufelman

After the break.

But, you know, Claire was a girl.

Women were now supposed to go back to being the shape of the number eight.

It was the ultimate declaration that war was over.

Ha ha ha, she fainted.

You can't go back.

You have to design for the lives American women lead today.

This is what Claire McArdle said in 1955 to a promising young journalist.

The feminine mystique would come out eight years later.

But Claire McArdle didn't get to read it.

Claire McArdle died on March 22, 1958, only shortly after Christian Dior died in October of the previous year.

These two designers had been born months apart and they died months apart.

They both, in their similar lifespans, completely upended what women wore and what we consider fashion to be.

Well, this leads to like the big question, which is why is Dior so much more famous than Claire McCardle?

Why wasn't Claire McCardle Dior?

I mean, there weren't any designers for ready-to-wear.

There weren't names on mass-production clothes.

That was new.

There was no protocol here.

She pioneered the fashion designer as we understand it today.