Elizabeth Evitz Dickinson

There was this woman across the coast who got robbed.

She was held up, and she was at court to testify against the men who robbed her.

But the judge was more concerned by the fact that she was wearing pants.

And he said she needed to go home and change into a dress.

And she refused.

And he jailed her.

There weren't even women's rooms in most public buildings at the time.

If you were a single woman trying to come to the city, there was no place for you to live.

I mean, you still had to have a male signature to get a checking account.

You still had to have a male escort to get into restaurants.

There was no such thing as a fashion designer in New York.

The garment district was thriving, but it was primarily a manufacturing hub for churning out Parisian copies.

And yet.

A lot of what she created in the 1930s and 40s really laid the foundation for modern, ready-to-wear American clothing.

Every article I read that was written in her lifetime basically called her a girl.

Author Elizabeth Evitz Dickinson again.

She was still called a girl at 50.

I think that growing up in rural Maryland with three brothers helped a lot because she was out running around in the countryside and she had this great quote that said, a dress can be pretty, but climbing a tree in it, forget it.

She eventually wore her parents down and was on a train up to Parsons.

And the Three Arts Club was meant for women any age, really.