Claire McCardell, What Shall I Wear?
McCardell, Claire. What Shall I Wear? The What, Where, When, and How Much of Fashion. First Edition. 1956. Book and dust jacket are both in very good condition—previous owner’s name discreetly written on flyleaf, and jacket shows minor fraying.
Described as “master of the line, never the slave of the sequin” by department store magnate Stanley Marcus, Claire McCardell was one of the first on Seventh Avenue to forget Paris. She was instrumental in creating the American Look. In this sartorial primer, she says to disregard “labels and look for lines” but never forget that fashion is “fickle and silly and wonderful and unpredictable.”
“It’s freedom, it’s democracy, it’s casualness, it’s good health. Clothes can say all that.”
--Claire McCardell