From creating clothes with comfort in mind to employing thousands, these designers liberated women in so many ways.
Long before the origins of what would become Women’s History Month were put in motion in 1981, female designers and pioneers in fashion were carving out their own paths to empower women with clothes that instill confidence and to create jobs that sustain livelihoods.
While millions associate fashion purely with style, these troubadours used their designs to create a more individualistic route to self expression and to alter preconceptions of what a woman should be. Conformity was not what they were after. Interestingly though, these leaders often created garments with comfort in mind so as to allow the wearer present their truest sense.
WWD has delved into its archives to highlight how these female creatives still influence fashion today.
Madame Grès
It is not often that fashion acquires genius but, once in a while, it shows up.
Madame Grès became elusive due to her dedication to the art form she adored, couture, and her unadorned beige turban, which became her signature. “From the beginning…I didn’t have the knowledge. I took the material and worked directly on it. I used the knowledge I had, which was sculpture,” the couturier told WWD in 1963.
Her famous Grecian-influenced column gowns of the 1930s, made of silk, rayon and later, polyester jersey, are the anthesis of her oeuvre. The dresses, sculpted and sewn on the body, selvedge to selvedge, no two alike using an average of 13 to 23 meters of uncut fabric, remained weightless. Grès’ continued to be influenced by multicultural costumes throughout her career.
Grès’ approach to her art informed the singularity of her genius. But her death, like her life was shrouded in mystery. While it was reported to the fashion press falsely in 1994, her actual passing a year earlier was kept secret by her daughter. Appreciation for Grès’ work has allowed her most essential pieces to be preserved by time, allowing her commitment to the couture she loved and her legacy to stay alive.
Coco Chanel
Prior to her death in Paris at the age of 87 in 1971, Gabrielle Bonheur “Coco” Chanel had been working up until the last minute on her couture collection. Considered by many to have been the greatest fashion force who ever lived, she created a fashion spirit, as well as a look. Aside from influencing most of the best young designers of her time in Europe and the U.S., she has had a lingering impact on fashion today.
Costume jewelry, trenchcoats, the quilted leather purse, turtlenecks, pants, peacoats and Chanel No. 5 fragrances remain standbys today.
Chanel was once described by Pablo Picasso as having “more sense than any woman in Europe.” Her career began around 1912 (though she said it was 1914) with the opening of a small hat shop in Deauville. With her fiancé at war, she was looking for something to pass the time. After borrowing a sweater from a jockey at the races one day to fend off the chill, Chanel sparked a sweater trend with all “the smart Deauville ladies” within a week. Provocative and controversial, Chanel was criticized by many for her romantic ties to a German diplomat during WWII and the years that followed. The designer returned to Paris in 1954 and reopened her couture house. In the years that followed, Chanel, who had been born into poverty, built up the business and a following.
Bonnie Cashin
“Modern clothing is only valid if it works…and going into history for gimmicky ideas is not modern,” Bonnie Cashin told WWD in 1968.
Before her high school graduation at the age of 16, Cashin designed costumes for a local dance troupe at Fanchon and Marco. Grasping the importance of functionality in design was one of Cashin’s strong suits. After relocating to Manhattan to study dance and take courses at the Art Students’ League, she went on to design costumes for the Roxy Theater in the ’30s. After seeing Cashin’s design on stage, Carmel Snow, editor in chief of the American edition of Harper’s Bazaar from 1934 to 1958, recommended her to Adler & Adler, which she joined full-time in 1938.
Not a fan of the Seventh Avenue mind-set of categories, Cashin later hit Hollywood as a costume designer at Twentieth Century Fox. After designing costumes for 60 films, she returned to New York, launched a Cashin, who died in 2000, having largely kept her distance from the grips of fashion’s conventions, has largely not been credited for her manifold forward-thinking contributions to the industry, which continue to impact fashion today.
“I didn’t want to be boxed in by any one company or any one design problem,” she once said. “I wanted to design everything that a woman put on her body. I felt that designing for the entire body was like an artist such composition.”
Claire McCardell
Millions of people around the world can be found at any given moment wearing ballet flats, sportswear with oversize pockets, strapless swimwear, zippered dresses, mix-and-match separates, feminine denim and versions of the monastic dress. Knowingly or not, they have the late fashion designer Claire McCardell to thank.
The rare fashion styles that have stood the test of time are such wardrobe staples that have been worn by generations. Perhaps more than any other American designer, McCardell freed women from the constraints of appropriate attire. Emblematic of her exemplary “American look,” her creations can be found in the Smithsonian Institution and the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. McCardell first won the prestigious Coty award, a precursor to the Council of Fashion Designers of America’s much coveted awards, in 1943 and then again in 1956. That ascent was notable for a designer, who had started her career by painting rosebuds on lampshades.
However, think about her signature look. Created in 1938, “the Monastic” dress, had large patch pockets, loose sleeves and a roomy fit from being cut straight from the shoulder to the hem and gathered at the waist with a belt or sash. Three years later she whipped up five pieces that could make nine outfits. The 1942 wraparound popover dress was even more adaptable because it could be worn as a party dress, a housedress, a cover-up for a swimsuit, or a robe. Her tie-together “diaper” bathing suit anticipated the daring beachwear styles of the 1980s. Her other greatest hits included the modern dirndl, spaghetti straps on evening gowns, peddle pushers, and the “popover dress.” She also popularized leotards and tweed evening coats. Betty Friedan wrote, “You have to design for the lives American women lead today” in a 1955 magazine article.
Anne Klein
Anne Klein, born Hannah Golofski, is synonymous with American sportswear. Anne Klein & Co., the business she founded in 1968, grew out of a concept. Chic, comfortable, uncomplicated fashion that fits well and is wearable from season to season. “No fads,” the designer once declared to WWD.
So many pieces of clothing in today’s wardrobe could, in some way, be attributed to Anne Klein. She believed in easing women into new silhouettes by introducing them in her collections at the right time. Some of those staples include the button front A-line dress, the leather midi skirt, the long sweater vest cardigan, pants that fit perfectly. These and many more were a part of what WWD called Anne’s “separate into togetherness” concept. While women had long been buying sets, Klein introduced coordinated separates that would allow women to mix and match their wardrobe, a concept that was met with great success throughout department stores.
Liz Claiborne
When Liz Claiborne opened her namesake brand at the age of 47, some thought she was past her prime; however, she had a vision. Claiborne’s groundbreaking success was inevitably connected to how she wanted to live in her own clothing.
By the time she stepped down as chief designer of DKI in 2015, Karan had built a fashion empire from the ground up. DKI went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 1996. Along the way, Karan forged into how do we present ourselves as women, what are we asking? Are we asking for it, you know, by presenting all the sensuality and all the sexuality?” Shortly after she apologized for her remarks in several interviews, one notably in WWD with then executive editor Bridget Foley.
