You probably recognize Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson’s name. From her home in Baltimore, where she’s lived for decades, she’s written for national publications like The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Washington Post Magazine. But she’s also lent her talents to Baltimore-based institutions, such as MICA and Johns Hopkins, where she has taught, and Urbanite magazine, where she was editor from 2004 to 2007. In recognition of her fine work, she’s been awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation, and other organizations.
In Claire McCardell: The Designer Who Set Women Free, Dickinson shines a light on another artistic luminary who achieved considerable recognition in her lifetime. Born in Frederick, Maryland, in 1905, Claire McCardell was a free-thinking, inventive, ambitious, and resourceful clothing designer. As the introduction explains, McCardell developed “leotards and leggings, brought hoodies, denim, and leather into womenswear, ushered the swimsuit into its contemporary form, included pockets in her clothes, and made the wrap dress a wardrobe staple.” We also have her to thank for ballet flats. McCardell believed that clothing should empower women to move and be and do, not restrict them. So why don’t more of us know her name?
I am thrilled that Dickinson was able to chat with me about this excellent biography, which will be published on June 17, 2025.
BFB: How did you first develop an interest in McCardell and her work?
Fresh out of college, I was working at the Maryland Center for History and Culture in Baltimore, where McCardell’s family had donated clothing and personal letters for an archive. The museum mounted an exhibition of her clothes, but I’d never heard of her. I didn’t yet appreciate that much of what was in my closet—the wrap dresses, the ballet flats, the hoodies—existed because Claire McCardell forever changed American fashion beginning in the 1930s.
Opening night of the exhibition, I had an inkling that my true calling was to pursue a creative life as a writer, but I was still questioning this quiet inner voice. To make matters worse, I was wearing an uncomfortable suit with fake pockets that a saleswoman had talked me into. I stood there awkwardly juggling a lipstick and office keys, longing to slip into one of McCardell’s stylish and comfortable dresses, which all had pockets.
A few weeks later I quit that job, and I began to write. I’m not saying that Claire McCardell made me do it, but she did come into my life at a crucial moment. I was ready to escape the confines of a culture that had very clear dictates for what a young woman was meant to wear, and to be. And I never forgot McCardell. It’s hard to fathom that her story isn’t more broadly known.
BFB: The prose here is direct and natural. It’s not flashy, self-congratulatory, or—dare I say it?—corsetted. It beautifully complements McCardell’s designs. Was this an intentional stylistic choice?
Oh, that’s nice to hear. Thank you. I think that, stylistically, direct and natural is how I write. When writing nonfiction, I aim to be rigorous in my research and then let the facts do the talking. From there, it comes down to the curation of that scholarship—what to use, what to jettison, and how to structure the book to contain the story.
That said, I did make some style choices. I knew, for instance, that I wanted this story to unfold a bit like a novel, so that readers felt like they were riding alongside McCardell, versus feeling that time warp where the biographer from 2025 is looking back. I couldn’t, for instance, give McCardell knowledge that she didn’t already have.
The book opens with a scene from 1955 to set the stage for who McCardell is and why I wanted to write about her. But after that, the book is chronological, and it’s hers, and I am no longer in its pages. There’s no “biographer” telling you the story—at least, that was my intention.
BFB: Has writing this book changed how you think about what you wear?
Definitely! I’ve never been very fashionable or fully comfortable in my clothes. Researching this book made me question why that is. McCardell taught me that it comes down to style versus fashion and that you should dress for yourself—no one else. She encouraged women to find their own style, meaning what best suited their body, personality, and circumstances. In her day, “fashion” was what Paris unleashed every few months to keep women agitated, hungry, and buying new clothes. “As we all know, fashion is a very fickle girl,” McCardell liked to say, so don’t bother.
It’s funny, I wrote a biography on a fashion designer and I came away feeling empowered to admit that I don’t much care to keep up with fashion. I really prefer vintage, particularly the clothes of the 1970s that I grew up with.
BFB: What do you think McCardell would make of today’s clothing and fashion environment, particularly fast fashion?
I think she’d be amazed by the creativity of many of today’s top designers and the advances in textiles and technology, but she would be shocked that so few women helm design firms today. And she’d be appalled by the working conditions and environmental consequences of fast fashion. She believed in people making a living wage and supported the garment unions. She believed in the potential of mass production to bring well-designed clothes to more people, but she abhorred shoddily made items that led to waste. Fast fashion accounts for 92 million tons of garbage every year. McCardell may have been a world-famous fashion designer in her lifetime, but she never told women to buy clothes they didn’t need. She encouraged thrifting, sewing, repairing. And she pushed herself to invent clothes that women truly wanted and could keep their entire lives.
BFB: McCardell’s ideas went far beyond apparel. She had a vision for how women should be able to be in the world. What are some of the most valuable take-aways from her wider ethos?
This is precisely what interested me in learning more about McCardell. Her story is far more than a fashion history. It’s also the story of dress codes, gender rules, women’s ambition, housework and careers, and the forgotten feminist roots of the clothing we all still wear today. McCardell believed in equality, autonomy, and the right for women to live their lives as they saw fit. So many of the hurdles she faced in her lifetime echo precisely what women are grappling with today. There was a backlash to women’s rising autonomy and careers between the world wars, and McCardell, and her peers, were having none of it. As I write in the book, stitching Claire McCardell’s name back onto the apparel she pioneered is not merely a history lesson in provenance; it is a vital and timely reminder of a designer, and a movement, that was always about far more than clothes. McCardell and the women she knew banded together to build an entire industry at a time when they couldn’t even open their own bank accounts. This is a poignant and timely reminder that our strength comes in numbers.
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Launch Events
There are two opportunities to hear Dickinson speak in Baltimore this month:
June 17, 2025 6:30 pm:Maryland Center for History and Culture
Ticketed event–details here.
June 26, 2025: 7:00 PM: Writer’s Live at the Enoch Pratt Free Library’s Central Branch
In conversation with Lane Harlan
Free with registration–details here
