Fashion sketches and illustrations, 1940-1959, 1940-1959

Adele Simpson began her career working for several 7th Ave ready-to-wear fashion houses in New York. In 1942, she went to work for Mary Lee and worked for Lee under her own name by 1944. She received the Neiman Marcus Award in 1946 and the Coty Award in 1947. In 1949, she bought the Lee's company and renamed it Adele Simpson, Inc. She was known throughout the 1970s and 1980s for her wearable chemise dresses and shirtwaists. Simpson dressed many First Ladies throughout her career.

Maurice Rentner was an established maker of quality suits and dresses and a founding member and first president of the Fashion Originators Guild of America. He began his career in fashion working in his father's button making factory and in 1923 formed Maurice Rentner, Inc.

Claire McCardell was born May 24, 1905, in Frederick, Maryland. She showed an aptitude and passion for fashion from a young age, and began making her own clothes during her early adolescence. At age 18 McCardell enrolled in Hood College in Fredrick, Maryland, but she left after two years to pursue fashion illustration at the New York School of Fine and Applied Art (known today as Parsons School of Design). In 1927 McCardell transferred to the Parsons branch in Paris at the Place des Vosges. There, she gained hands-on experience with Paris couture and perfected her understanding of garment construction. When she returned to New York she worked as a model, a seamstress and as a designer for a small knit-goods company.

In 1929 McCardell began working as an assistant designer for Robert Turke, and moved with him to Townley Frocks, Inc. when Turk’s own firm disbanded. A month before the spring showing in 1931, Turk tragically drowned and McCardell was left responsible for completing the collection. She copied the latest styles from Paris and the collection sold well, although it was moderately received. For the following collection she experimented with shapes and materials in a more avant-garde style, but these were too advanced for the mainstream market, which was not yet ready for her revolution of casual clothing and sportswear. Then, in 1938 McCardell launched her famous 'Monastic Dress', a shapeless bias-cut dress that was worn with a belt to cinch the waist. It was extremely successful and widely copied by mass retailers. McCardell left Townley Frocks for a brief time and went to Hattie Carnegie (1938-1940), where she worked alongside Norman Norell. She later returned to Townley Frocks, where she spent the rest of her career.

While other designers struggled during World War II without the guidance of French designers and with the unavailability of traditional fabrics and materials, McCardell took advantage of the circumstances. She used nontraditional fabrics such as denim and wool jersey, while continuing to design clothing to meet the everyday needs of the American woman. In 1942 she designed the 'Pop-over' dress, a wrap dress that was meant to be popped-over pants, bathing suit or the bare skin. It was simple, comfortable and functional- a style that became McCardell's signature. The dress was very successful and was incorporated in different variations into every collection from then on.

During her short career McCardell collaborated with many retailers and manufacturers and received several awards and accolades for her innovative fashion. Among them were the Mademoiselle Merit Award, Coty American Fashion Critics Award, Nieman-Marcus Award, and Women's National Press Club Award. McCardell's contributions to the fashion industry include metal closures, blue-jean stitching, mix and match separates, and the influence of menswear in women's designs. Perhaps most importantly, she helped create an “American Look” that was distinct from traditional Parisian fashion. Sadly, McCardell succumbed to cancer on March 22, 1958, at age 52.

Born in Italy in 1890 into a family of bureaucrats and scholars, Elsa Schiaparelli fled Rome to avoid her family's pressure to marry a Russian aristocrat at age 23. The following year she would impulsively marry a spiritualist philosopher within days of their meeting, eventually moving to the United States where her only daughter "Gogo" was born in 1920. Schaiparelli divorced and returned to Europe, settling in Paris in 1922. On the crossing ocean voyage, Schiaparelli developed a friendship with Gabrielle Picabia, wife of the Dada painter Francis Picabia, which would lead to decades long friendships and collaborations with artists working in the Dada and surrealist movements, including Salvador Dali and Jean Cocteau. At the encouragement of Paul Poiret, Schiaparelli began freelancing as a fashion designer and in 1927, she opened a small fashion atelier, initially focusing on knitwear. Within five years the house of Sciaparelli was a full-fledged couture house with more than 400 employees on the payroll. She was renowned for her unique brand of "hard chic" which also frequently incorporated witty and whimsical imagery. Her collections were often thematic, and she was well known for her prints, hand-embroidery and exquisite sequin work, both executed by Lesage. The house of Schiparelli remained open during the German occupation under the direction of Irene Dana, while Schiaparelli herself took refuge in the United States, volunteering as a nurse at Belleview Hospital in New York City. Anxious to return to France at the end of the war, news reports note that Schiaparelli was one of the first designers in exile to return to Paris, where she reassumed the directorship of her house, which remained open until December 1954. After this time, many products bearing the Schiaparelli label, such as sweaters and millinery continued to be produced under licensing agreements.

Jean Patou (1887-1936) was a French fashion designer. He began his career by opening a dressmaking shop in 1912 called Maison Parry. Following the end of World War I in 1919, Patou reopened his business and established the House of Patou. In addition to designing luxury fashions, Patou became popular for his sportwear designs, dressing famous tennis stars of the 1920s. Patou also launched a number of popular perfumes, most notably the floral scent, "Joy."

Bergdorf Goodman began as a custom tailoring shop in 1901, named such after Edwin Goodman (1876-1953) bought out his partners in what had previously been the tailoring firm of Bergdorf and Voigt. Goodman had acquired a reputation for immaculate tailoring and an inspired understanding of cut and materials. Bergdorf Goodman expanded into ready-to-wear in 1923, but continued to offer custom clothing and millinery well into the 1960s. It was one of the last department stores to offer this service, indicative of the very wealthy clientele who favored Bergdorf Goodman and placed orders from around the globe. Primary couturier to New York society, Edwin Bergman and the Bergdorf Goodman custom salon also outfitted international royalty, Broadway and Hollywood stars, and the elites of Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and the West Coast, many of whom spent $100,000/year in the store. Bergdorf Goodman was known for the immaculate craftsmanship of its clothes, and later for furs.



The custom salon was never strictly profitable for Bergdorf Goodman because of the high cost of labor and materials, and the cost of research and buying trips to Paris and Italy. A 1951 Business Week article on the department store reported that the custom salon “has not made money since 1929.” The salon employed 3 top-notch designers, 115 dressmakers, 55 tailors, 14 dressers, a “string of saleswomen, models, and assistants,” not to mention the sketch-makers and watercolorists who produced the sketches that comprise most of this collection. But this boutique service raised the profile of the department store and the house designers who worked in the custom salon also contributed designs for Bergdorf Goodman’s ready-to-wear collection. Edwin Goodman has been credited with extending the construction techniques of higher-end garments (deep hems and cutting on the true bias) to ready-to-wear, and raising the standards for the mass manufacture of clothing in the United States.



Andrew Goodman (1907-1993) succeeded his father as President of the store in 1951 on the occasion of the store’s 50th anniversary, and remained active until 1975, three years after it became part of the Broadway-Hale department store chain. Bergdorf Goodman subsequently became a division of the Neiman Marcus group. The store has been at its present location at 58th Street and Fifth Avenue since 1928. Unlike other department stores, Bergdorf Goodman never expanded to include branches in the suburbs.



Bergdorf Goodman Inc. is a luxury goods department store based on Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The company was founded in 1899 by Herman Bergdorf and was later owned and managed by Edwin Goodman, and later his son Andrew Goodman.

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