Elizabeth Evitz Dickinson

Calvin Klein, I quote in the book, like he said, she's the one who did it.

She's the one who set the stage and set the standard.

This was a woman who was responsible for much of what was in my closet.

Ballet flats, mix and match separates, wrap dresses, denim and women's wear, hoodies.

And I was shocked that I had never heard her name.

And if you talk to designers today, many of them will say that Claire McArdle is part of their design inspiration, whether that's Anna Sui, who I've talked to about her, or Michael Kors or Tory Burch.

You had boning in your bodice and you had crinolines.

You had one dress for when you were asleep and you had another dress for when you were doing your house chores.

And then you had a day dress and that involved a corset.

Like her quote was, I don't hate crinolines.

I just hate when they try and get into an elevator.

Because like what women were being asked to wear, you couldn't get into a cab.

You couldn't ride the subway.

You couldn't get into an elevator.

There were municipal laws.

There were vice codes about what you were allowed to wear and not to wear.

And a lot of this was about gendering fashion, right?

If you were not wearing what was considered appropriate to your gender, you could go to jail.

Can you tell me that one?

This was in the 30s, around the time that Claire was just starting to really break out with this unstructured, comfortable sportswear.