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Sportswear
Prior to World War II, New York fashion designers made the trek across the Atlantic Ocean to attend the flamboyant and opulent French fashion shows each year. They then returned to the United States and copied the latest Parisian haute couture designs. Once the Germans occupied Paris and the United States stationed battleships in the Atlantic Ocean, the New York designers were cut off from Paris haute couture. In their attempts to design new fashions for the United States market, they concentrated on sportswear. This led to the United States emerging as the sportswear capital of the world.
So just who was it who designed the “popular and timeless new look” for women in the 1940s on this side of the Atlantic? Claire McCardell, a graduate of Parsons School of Design, became the foremost pioneer of this true, new look, called sportswear.
Other American women designers who have made a contribution to American sportswear are Vera Maxwell, whose sportswear was as fashionable as it was chic, Bonnie Cashin (who passed away in February), Isabel Toledo, and lesser-known designers such as Anne Fogarty, Tina Leser and Clare Potter. According to Suzy Menkes of the International Herald Tribune, these designers founded “a new standard for a practical modern style more in accord with the lives of the women of their era.”
Today, these and other American designers are remaining true to the two C’s of sportswear: clean lines and comfort. This relaxed and functional look which debuted 60 years ago promises to influence women’s fashion for decades to come.
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