DONA GRACIA NASI, A WOMAN OF THE AGES (c) By Polly Guerin

Portrait of Dona Gracia Nasi


Dear Dona Gracia: As we celebrate your 500th birthday (1510-2010) and your incredible accomplishments you rank among the most noble of women determined to succeed. Dona Gracia Nasi, born in Lisbon, Portugal (1510-1569) was one of the wealthiest Jewish women of the Renaissance who used her personal fortune and powerful contacts to help conversos (forcibly converted Jews) prime victims of the Inquisition to flee to safety in the Ottoman Empire. Dona Gracia Nasi’s negotiating skills, leadership and fierce commitment to her Jewish faith serves as a role model for women of all religious persuasions. Her unwavering courage and leadership is a story worth the telling and inspires women today.
A MODERN WOMAN
Dona Garcia lived at a time in which her actions, setbacks and strategies were surprisingly modern, and that is only one of the reasons I include her in this series on amazing women of the ages. Consider her name, for example, she never known by her husband’s name Mendes and like other women of the l6th century, she retained her birth name, Beatrice de Luna, until she took her original Hebrew name in the Ottoman Empire, where she could live openly as a Jew. Never underestimate the powerful convictions of a woman such as Dona Garcia. She took control of her personal life and never relied on one doctor’s opinion concerning a medical concern but immediately sought another doctor’s opinion.
MARRIES INTO THE NASI DYNASTY
Beatrice de Luna was born into an ancient, venerable family of “Marranos,” (New Christians), that fled Portugal when Spain expelled its Jews in 1492. She married into the eminent international banking and finance dynasty of Mendes, and in 1528 when she was 18 years old, she married Francisco Mendes in a public Catholic wedding and then a Crypto-Judaic ceremony with the signing of a ketubah (a formal contract in a Jewish religious marriage). Francisco, along with his brother Diogo, ran a powerful trading company and bank of world repute with agents across Europe and around the Mediterranean. Following the opening of a sea route to India, they became important spice trader. After her marriage she was known as Dona Beatrice Mendes and in private life, called by her Jewish name, Gracia Nasi. (Dona is a formal title meaning “Mrs.” Gracia is the Spanish equivalent of Hannah)
MANAGING THE FAMILY BUSINESS
Dona Beatrice Mendes was widowed in 1538 leaving her with an infant daughter, Brianda. Following her husband’s death she went to Antwerp, where her brother-in-law Diogo Mendes had moved the family business years earlier. At his death in 1542 she took up the reigns of management and not only ran the family’s banking business but the trading and shipping empire as well. She became a celebrated banker and as Diogo had done before, she continued using the family’s contacts and international resources to help Jews escape the Inquisition, and by doing this act of bravery, her family was also constantly in danger.
A POWERFUL WOMAN
You may rightly wonder what prevented Dona Garcia from re-marrying? Remember she was a woman of her time but she knew the compulsory rules of the day. In the Renaissance Dona Garcia could not remarry and bear more children without making grave sacrifices. The laws of those days would have immediately handed control of her money and business to her new spouse. Instead she became a powerful woman managing the Mendes commercial empire and becoming a successful businesswoman. Legend has it that she was a fierce negotiator, tough and determined when it came to collecting debts, whether from fellow Jews or the royal courts of the day. Her enormous wealth put her into a position to influence kings and popes dealing involved commercial activities, loans and bribes. Payments to the Pope, for example, delayed the establishment of the Inquisition in Portugal. She even maintained her own lobbyist at the Vatican against the expansion and grisly deeds of the Inquisition.
PURSUED BY THE INQUISITION
During her travels through France, Italy, and Turkey the Inquisition pursued her and greedy local rulers attempted to confiscate the family fortune. With amazing determination, business acumen, shrewdness and diplomacy, she managed to escape each assault and continue to build the family business. Dona Beatrice and her family finally reached Turkey in 1553, where they settled near Constantinople, finally free to live as a Jew. She de-Christianized her maiden and married names and was called Garcia Nasi. She built synagogues, yeshivas and hospitals. Gracia Nasi a noble and sainted woman of the ages died near Istanbul in 1569.
A NEW BIOGRAPHY
The remarkable life of Dona Garcia Nasi deserves full disclosure as only a scholar can produce. Andree Aelion Brooks, award-winning author of a new biography of Dona Garcia Nasi called, “The Woman Who Defied Kings,” published by Paragon House (2002), presents the incredible story of Donna Garcia Nasi, the 16th century Jewish woman banker who developed an escape network that saved thousands of her fellow converses from the terrors of the Inquisition. Ms. Brooks is an associate fellow at Yale University and a former contributing columnist to the New York Times. She can be reached at andreebrooks@hotmail.com. A Journey into the Life and Times of "La Senora," the first commemoration in honor of the 500th birthday of Dona Gracia Nasi was presented by
Ms. Brooks at The brotherhood Synagogue on June 6, 2010.

THE PRINCESS OF MONACO, GRACE KELLY (C)

THE PRINCESS OF MONACO, GRACE KELLY

(c) By Polly Guerin

Dear Grace: You were the personification of the well groomed, white gloved, classic beauty, seemingly always in control and turned out with band box perfection. In an era (1950’s) when manners and breeding were paramount characteristics of refined sensibilities you served as an icon for countless women who tried to imitate your style. Born to the role of movie star and princess your brand of kindness and your delightful personality were legendary as was living your life to its fullest with smoldering fire and sexual elegance. As mere admirers other women dreamed of finding their gallant prince but you did, and became Her Serene Highness the Princess of Monaco.

THE PHILADELPHIA DEBUTANT

Even before meeting her prince Grace was a true princess. She was tall, slender, with icy blond hair and cool blue eyes that gazed out at the world with poise and All-American girl perfection. Born in Philadelphia on November 12, 1929 into a charismatic Irish-Catholic family, her father Jack Kelly’s sporty, competitive persona must have inspired Grace’s drive and determined desire to succeed. Despite her parents’ disapproval Grace wanted to be an actress from an early age, but her determination was steadfast and she somehow managed leave home and head for New York City. While attending the renowned American Academy of Dramatic Art at 120 Madison Ave., in the historic Murray Hill enclave of Manhattan, she began taking acting classes and working as a model. Many roles would define her serene persona and in her graduation performance she was aptly cast as Tracy Lord, the privileged heiress in The Philadelphia Story. Grace was talented, albeit aided by her stunningly beautiful face, which gazes out of the photograph posted at the Academy in the graduating class of 1949.

BECOMING A FILM STAR

Grace did not hatch the dream of becoming a movie star without resources. Grace had a theatrical family legacy that included her Uncle Walter Kelly, who was a successful vaudevillian and George Kelly, a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright. It was George who encouraged her dream of acting but he did warn her about Hollywood’s feudal studio system. Grace’s first small acting roll was in the film “14 Hour,” but this film did not spiral her career forward, it was High Noon, 1952 that put her in the spotlight. The Los Angeles times would write that she “came seemingly out of nowhere,” but the truth of the matter is that her “sexual elegance” caught the eye of John Ford and Alfred Hitchcock. She acted in a couple of films including Mogambo with Clark Gable and Ava Gardner. Grace's rumored romances with leading men fueled the gossip mongers with relish. Undaunted by such knowledge when she and Gable had an affair during the filming of Mogambo, Grace replied nonchalantly: “What else is there to do if you’re alone in a tent in Africa with Clark Gable?” Her rise in Hollywood was swift. She acted in seven movies for Hitchcock, winning two Golden Globe Awards and an Academy Award. She was riding high on her career when her starring role as a film star was serendipitously cast in another direction.

THE PRINCE ARRIVES ON THE SET

As destiny would have it Grace was at the Cannes Film Festival in the South of France when she met Prince Rainier of Monaco. He too, found in Grace Kelly the perfect woman he was looking for. During filming of MGM’s The Swan, she had been exchanging letters with the Prince Rainier Grimaldi, ever since she met him in 1955. Grace seemingly slipped with fairytale ease into love with the Prince. Perhaps the timing was right and cast of lovers perfectly paired because Grace had made it perfectly clear to her intimate circle that she did not want to become an aging beauty in Hollywood.

THE WEDDING OF THE CENTURY

The little principality of Monaco was decked out like a wedding cake; the palace was as pink as a bridesmaid’s gown. The two were married in an extravagant ceremony in 1956. It was the first multi-media press event with a slew of reporters and photographers on the ship that took Grace and her entourage of 66 to Monaco. Her arrival was met with hails of enthusiastic onlookers and greeters. It was a dream come true, a win win situation, the movie star became a Princess and for Grimaldi the prospect of the birth of a child would secure Monaco’s independence from France. The festivities were filmed by MGM and broadcast live to more than 30 million viewers in worldwide.
BIRTH OF THE HERMES’ KELLY BAG

It was during her pregnancy with her first child Caroline that Grace adopted an accessory by Hermes, a large square handbag made of pigskin that she used to shield her belly from the public. In her honor, Hermes christened this bag, ‘the Kelly,’ which even today remains an icon of impeccable good taste. Her role as a mother and as a Royal was consuming, and Rainier discouraged any filmmaking roles. Some say that it was not a ‘fairytale’ marriage, but who knows. Was real life ever meant to be so perfect? Grace’s marriage obviously had the same ups and downs, joys and disappoints as all other women who dreamed of a fairytale marriage.

AU REVOIR TO THE PRINCESS

One never knows what exactly happened that glorious sunny but fateful day of September 13, 1982. Dismissing the chauffeur Grace was driving the car because she was headed for the dressmaker and had put dresses that needed to be altered across the back seat. While driving that treacherous road it seems that she suffered a small “warning’ stroke and she lost control of the car. Sadly that car crash silenced the life of her Serene Highness the Princess of Monaco.

THE PRINCESS GRACE LEGACY

Even today Grace Kelly’s imprint is felt on the world of fashionistas who covet her famous looks, her image of poise and perfection. She dressed cool and collected, her makeup was understated and her hair clean and shining, and her clothes were immaculate, a perfect lesson for any young woman today. No miniskirts for this Princess. She wore knee grazing pencil skirts with tiny waists and sexy jackets, or a simple classic ball gown devoid of jewelry. The effect was stunning and a classic example of controlled elegance. Grace Kelly was in every aspect: classy, sophisticated, discreet and forever remembered as a true Princess.

BELLE da COSTA GREENE, MORGAN'S LIBRARIAN (C)

By Polly Guerin

Dear Belle: Your legend goes far beyond color borders and crossed into history's archives as one of the most revered librarians. You ascended upward into elite society and crossed the great divide as the triumphant African American personal librarian of the prestigious J.P. Morgan Library. At a time when even most white women were denied job opportunities or discouraged from pursing work outside of their home you carved out a remarkable career. The year was 1905 when J.P. Morgan engaged your services, shy of five years before the suffragettes won the vote by the 19th amendment to the Constitution in 1920. Segregation was rampant at the time, but your light complexion enabled you to pass for white. Vivacious, intelligent and shrewd Belle da Costa Greene is an amazing art deco heroine in the annals of American women’s achievements.

BELLE THE LIBRARIAN

In some people’s lives ‘luck’ plays an important card of good fortune, and that was the case with Belle ad Costa Greene. J.P. Morgan had realized that his book collection had become too large for his study and engaged Charles F. McKim to build him a library to the east of his Madison Avenue brownstone. At that time J.P. Morgan’s nephew, Julius Spencer Morgan, a Princeton alumnus who was an advisor to the library, understood his uncle's need for a librarian and introduced Greene to America’s great titan of industry. She did not come to meet J.P. Morgan without credentials. Greene had been working at the Princeton University Library in Princeton, New Jersey and had honed skills that would serve her well at the Morgan Library. No doubt the brainy Belle impressed the great financier, but she was also quite beautiful and possessed a certain sensuous quality due to her exotic complexion, which helped her to pass as white.

AN OPPORTUNISTIC EVENT

The opportunity presented itself and Morgan hired her as his personal librarian. However, over and above her physical attractiveness, Morgan trusted her expertise not only because of her bargaining power with dealers, but also for her keen knowledge of illuminated manuscripts, of which Morgan had a vast collection. Trusting in her expertise, Greene had carte blanche to commit huge portions of Morgan’s fortune to establish the Morgan Library as one of the premier private collections. Throughout her tenure she would spend millions of dollars buying and selling rare manuscripts, books and art.

A LIFETIME CAREER

Greene seems to have passed over the boundaries of the racial divide more for reasons of ambition and opportunity and made the Morgan Library her lifetime career. . Alas, Greene never married but devoted her life to the development of the Morgan Library. In the role of Morgan’s emissary, Greene was determined to make Morgan’s library pre-eminent in the collection of manuscripts, bindings and the classics. She had the enviable position of being in the center of the art world for over 43 years, and every dealer coveted her friendship. As a result she moved with ease in elite society and enjoyed the company of the super rich patrons of the arts.

A FASHIONABLE WOMAN

With Morgan’s largesse, Greene’s unlimited means attracted attention as did her bearing and fashionable style of dressing. Known for her designer wardrobe, she once declared, “Just because I am a Librarian, doesn’t mean I have to dress like one.” On trips to Europe her lifestyle was lavish and unprecedented. When she traveled she stayed at the best hotels—Claridge’s in London and the Ritz in Paris. It is said that she would even take along her thoroughbred horse, which she rode in Hyde Park in London. In friendships she favored affairs with rich or influential men, especially art scholars and dealers. She enjoyed a Bohemian freedom and had a long list of lovers. Asked if she was Morgan’s mistress, she is said to have replied, “We tried!” Rumor had it that she had her most lasting romantic relationship with the celebrated United States art critic, Bernard Berenson.

AN HEIRESS EMERGES

Even after J.P. Morgan died in 1913, Greene continued in her role with J. P. Morgan’s son, who bore the same name, continuing to build and overseeing the collection. Following J. P. Morgan's death she also became the director of the library. Her society and art dealer contacts made her a formidable collector and established her privileged status as the most respected librarian of the era. J.P. Morgan left her $50,000 in his will, reportedly $800,000 in modern money. Not so bad for a woman of African American decent, albeit she passed for white. Her incredible journey spanned 43 years from 1905 to 1948, the year that she retired. She died two years later in New York City.

GREENE’S NEW IDENTITY

Whispers and rumors about Greene’s passing were common throughout her life. In order to pass Greene and her mother, Genevieve Ida Fleet, who also had a light complexion, changed their name. They added “da Costa,” claiming to be part-Portuguese to account for their exotic complexion. Greene was born Belle Marion Greener (1883-1950). The family’s background was solidly-established in Washington, D.C. black bourgeoisie society. Her father Richard T. Greener, also very light-skinned, was a distinguished lawyer and public figure and the first black undergraduate to receive a degree from Harvard in 1870. Greener was also appointed dean of Howard University Law School. He separated from his family in 1890.

GREENE’S GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT

The story of Belle Marion Greener/Belle da Costa Greene reminds us, that underlying her finest achievement as J.P. Morgan’s librarian, was her talent, her shrewd intelligence, her tenacity and drive to realize her goal to make J.P. Morgan’s library the pre-eminent private collection in New York City and one of the most outstanding reference libraries for scholars worldwide.

The Morgan Library & Museum is located at 225 Madison Ave. (36th & 37th Streets) New York, NY 10016. http://www.themorgan.org/.

FRIDA KAHLO MEXICAN PAINTER EXTRAORDINAIRE (C)

FRIDA KAHLO MEXICAN PAINTER

By Polly Guerin

Dear Frida: I admire your fortitude, your originality and personal oeuvre that identified with Mexico, your beloved homeland. We recognize you in dozens of self-portraits with your bold unibrow and mustache, the flower crown in your hair and the native costumes you preferred wearing as a symbol of your Mexican heritage. As an iconoclastic artist you painstakingly rendered striking, often shocking images that often reflect your own pain and turbulent life. Yours was a journey that began as a self-taught artist and evolved over time with kudos of the international recognition.

CULTIVATING A MEXICAN IDENTITY

No matter where she traveled, whether in Paris, New York or her native country Frida fashioned herself elaborately in the Tehuana costumes of Indian maidens, creating an identity that clearly was unique and captivating. She painted using vibrant colors in a style that was influenced by indigenous cultures of Mexico. Frida Kahlo (born Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderon, July 6, 1907-July 13, 1954) was one of four daughters born to a Hungarian-Jewish father and a mother of Spanish and Mexican Indian descent, in the Mexico City, suburb of Coyoacan. She was born amidst political chaos in her homeland and throughout her life Frida preferred to claim 1910 as the year of her birth which coincided with the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution (1910).

AN ACCIDNET ALTERING LIFESTYLE

Some say that Frida adopted the Tehuana form of costume to hide her legs. There may be some truth to it. A polio survivor at fifteen, Frida’s young life was dramatically altered due to a tragic accident. Frida had entered in the premedical program at the National Preparatory School in Mexico City, but that ended when she was gravely injured in a trolley car accident three years later when she was eighteen years old. Despite spending a year in bed and enduring more than 30 operations recovering from fractures of her back, collarbone, ribs and a shattered pelvis, shoulder and neck injuries. The injuries left her broken as a youth and debilitated throughout much of her adult life. She suffered a life of constant pain and often had to wear a body brace to support her weakened condition.

BECOMING FRIDA KAHLO, THE PAINTER

One wonders what Frida could do to while away the dreary hours of recovery. It was during this year of convalescence that Frida began to paint with oils. Her paintings were mostly still lifes and self portraits filled with the bright colors of Mexico’s native folk art. Her talent evolved dramatically with self-expression and her profound reactions to life that she produced in surrealistic style in her paintings. About a third of her body of work, about 55 paintings, consists of self portraits. In some she stares out passively, in others Frida’s oeuvre was fantastic and sometimes gory depictions that symbolically articulated her own pain. Revealing different states of her mind are portrayals revealing her heartbreak, abortion and miscarriage. Yet there was a feeling of realism in many of her works which she rendered with real images in the most honest, straightforward way.

DISCOVERING DIEGO

High up on a scaffold, the celebrated muralist Diego Rivera sat contentedly high on his perch doing what he loved doing, painting grand public murals with political themes. She encountered the larger than life Diego in such a manner but had actually met him first as a schoolgirl. At 21, Frida fell in love with Rivera, whose approach to art and politics suited her own. Although he was 20 years he senior, they were married in 1929 and she became his third wife. The two became intertwined in a tumultuous marriage. Although as a couple, they remained childless one can observe Frida’s anguish of miscarriage in her painting. During most of their life together Frida was often immobilized in a cast in her bed, or confined to a hospital room awaiting an operation or recovering from a surgery. Her torment was abetted by Diego’s incorrigible philandering, once with Frida’s own young sister, Cristina. Yet, Frida remained loyal often referring to him as her "Baby. "

FRIDA’S DEVOTION TO RIVERA

Frida took great pride in keeping a home for Diego and loved fussing over him, cooking for him and even bathing him. Their love proved sustainable. The couple traveled to the United States and France, where Frida met luminaries from the worlds of art and politics, and had her first solo exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York City in 1938. Though they divorced in 1939 the two remained inseparable and remarried in 1940. Frida’s painting “The Two Fridas,” a double self-portrait, painted in 1939 at the time of her divorce from Diego is believed to be an expression of Frida’s feelings at the time.

FRIDA EMBRACES LIFE

She delighted in children and had many pets including the mischievous spider monkey that appears in “Self-Portrait with Monkey.” She loved visitors and often begged friends and “lovers to visit, not to “forget” her. Sadly after a lifetime of great fortitude and constant pain Frida Kahlo died at the age of 47. The legendary artist has of late been transformed into a veritable cult figure with numerous books and films depicting her life. At one time there was even a cult of young women who would affect the Frida Kahlo look, simulating Tehuana costumes, the flowered headdresses and long skirts of the artist. In a lovely tribute to Frida Kahlo this Deco Diva and her iconic works continue to attract admiring followers.

DOROTHY DRAPER PRIMA DONNA DECORATOR

DOROTHY DRAPER PRIMA DONNA DECORATOR

By Polly Guerin

Dear Dorothy: Long ago dining was no ordinary affair at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s restaurant. It was a memorable experience with its regal reflecting pool topped by skipping water sprites, and above hovered huge iron birdcage chandeliers. “Isn’t this a marvel?” my companion said. “It’s the best ambiance in town.” Indeed I did agree. The design environment was an incredible style, a fairytale-like setting enhancing the pleasure of our self service lunch. As we sat at a table at the edge of the reflecting pool we took it all in as the rightful ownership of typical New Yorkers. The birdcage chandeliers were pure decoration for no birds were noticed, but I shall never forget that it was Dorothy Draper who installed this enchanting environment, which was nicknamed "The Dorotheum." Sadly the restaurant no longer exists. Gone is the reflecting pool, the darting water sprites and the birdcages, all banished to oblivion and replaced with the museum’s new wing.
DOROTHY DRAPER’S OEUVRE

To Dorothy, public space represented a place for people to come and feel elevated in the presence of great beauty, where the senses could look and feel and absorb the meaning of a quality of life. Her design vision looked away from the period room styles of the past and moved forward into modernism with what became known as “the Draper touch.” Her oeuvre embraced an explosion of vivid, splashy colors, oversized prints, aristocratic flourishes like big, Baroque white plasterwork and most striking chessboard tile floors. Most stunning was her signature ‘cabbage rose” chintz, paired with bold stripes and intricate mirror frames over fireplaces. It was refreshing it was daring, it was the new wave of decorating with panache.

CLIENTS AND PROJECTS

Carleton Varney, the biographer of “The Draper Touch,” said of his mentor, “People came to Dorothy because she did the unexpected, and had this brilliant sense of color. She took a world that was drab and dreary and made it colorful. In 1937 she made the Hampshire House like an English country house with flowered chintzes. Dorothy was wealthy and had every social credential, which is why all the best hotels in the world came to her. Dorothy hardly bothered with private homes; her creative and unique style was reserved for hotels and large spaces which were her métier.” Her society friends admired her particular blend of French and English elements and her distinctive taste gave her the ability to take control of a hotel project in all aspects of design right down to the designs for menus, matchbook covers, and the staff uniforms. As such she decorated the sprawling Greenbrier Hotel, White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia in an enchanting blaze of color, stripes and chintz.

PROFESSIONAL STATUS

Decorating was not a recognized profession back in the 20s and 30s and decorating was mainly a male dominated occupation. Although women of a certain class did not work back then that did not stop Dorothy. With no other credentials than her incredible good taste, sense of color and decor Dorothy Draper became a self-taught decorator (no professional schools existed) and opened the Architectural Clearing House, arguably the first ‘official interior design business in 1923. Therefore, Dorothy Draper stands alone as the first person to “professionalize” the interior design industry in the United States.

THE PRIMA DONNA

In her day, Dorothy was the prima donna of the decorating business. Talk about branding Dorothy had it all. She gave decorating advice in her regular column for Good Housekeeping magazine, designed fabric lines for Schumacher, furniture for Ficks Reed, Heritage, and also designed theaters, department stores, commercial establishments and private corporate offices. Dorothy dominated the decorating business well into the 50s and designed the interiors of jet planes (Convair & TWA). She did a line for Package and Chrysler in the 1950s including a pink polka dot truck. The cosmetic industry acquiesced to her genre enlisting her creative for the Dorothy Gray cosmetic firm.

TO THE MANOR BORN

No doubt, it bodes well if you’re born into the right circles and have acquired class, bearing and distinction. No wonder Draper was able to parlay her blue-blood background into big business, particularly at a time when it was considered daring for a woman to go into business for herself. She had connections to the high society social world. Born a Tuckerman, to a wealthy and privileged family in 1889, the six foot tall debutant from Tuxedo Park grew up in New York surrounded by the best of American upper-class WASP style. Like so many young women of her era she wanted out of the confines of this society and did so by marrying Dr. George Draper, FDR’s personal physician and brother to actress Ruth Draper. However, when her husband asked for a divorce in the 1930s, it was almost a fortuitous ending to her marriage; her ambition took off with new zeal and highly visible commissions followed.

THE DRAPER LEGEND

Much of Draper’s oeuvre survives to this day. Imitators may aspire to create the Draper Touch but can never truly repeat her brand of creativity. Her eye-popping colors and never before seen combinations, such as aubergine and pink with a splash of chartreuse and a touch of turquoise blue elevates one’s visual surprise and pleasure as does the white furniture frames embracing oversized floral print chintz. Thank you Dorothy for making a world that was drab and dreary into a colorful symphony of color, joyful prints, shiny black and dull white contrast, pristine white moldings, mirror and furniture frames de rigueur interior design.

CLAIRE MCCARDELL AMERICAN FASHION ICON (c)

Claire McCardell creator of “The American Look” (c)

by Polly Guerin

Dear Claire: Paris can still claim its title as Haute Couture fashion capital of the world but American Sportswear, the concept of mix and match coordinated pieces is duly a credited to your creative innovation. As a pre-eminent American ready-to-wear fashion designer in the 20th century you understood the new independent woman and her active lifestyle from living in suburbia and chauffeuring children to school and husbands to the train station to engaging in sports activities, the gym and cultural pursuits. McCardell was a woman of her time. She knew what women wanted and patterned many of her design ideas after her own wardrobe needs.

THE NEW CASUAL CHIC

McCardell gave new meaning to term ‘Casual Chic’. Stylish, functional, affordable and versatile the coordinated garment pieces produced the concept of “separates” that made dressing from day into night and weekends spontaneous and comfortable. Her easy-to-wear approach to fashion is synonymous with the term ‘leisurewear’ and produced a loyal following among women of the pre WWII era, who rejected the formality of the French Couture. Women owe you a debt of gratitude to McCardell’s design concepts for even today casual wear is a mainstay of the American woman’s wardrobe.

FREEING FASHION’S RESTRAINTS

McCardell freed women from wearing the structured undergarments such as corsets, crinolines and girdles underlying the corporeal restrictions and dictates from Paris in the 40s and 50s. In her book, “What Shall I Wear?,” (Simon & Schuster 1956) she wrote that McCardellisms were ‘A glossary of terms that speak to me of fashion…and haven’t very much to do with Webster.’ She referred to separates as Strip-Tease or Matches: Clothes in pieces. You can wear all of them at one time or only two or three pieces, but they all go together and are made of related fabrics.
FABRIC INNOVATION

Cultivating the cult of soft, fabric draping and gathering to accentuate the natural shape of the body McCardell fashions had vast appeal, not only for their easy-wear facility but they were relatively inexpensive. These versatile separates and dresses were produced in materials borrowed from men’s wear, lingerie and even children’s wear incorporating natural-fiber fabrics such as cotton, twill, gingham, denim and jersey. McCardell knew a woman’s need for pockets and pleats were plenty. She was the first with the “riveted look,” using work-clothes grippers for fasteners and ornamentation and snappers made it easy to snap jackets, blouses and pants on and off. When the advent of WWII brought shortages of leather McCardell put her models in fabric Capezio ballet slippers, often matching the fabric of the garment. The fad caught on and gave the ballet slipper new meaning as footwear.

VERSATILITY IS THE KEY

Tying and wrapping were one of the hallmarks of McCardell’s design oeuvre. The 1938 MONASTIC DRESS, described as any loose, shift-like dress without a waistline, to be sashed at the whim of the customer, proved a popular easy-wear fashion. McCardell wrote, “It was a full and shapeless forerunner of the pleated Grecian sheath and all the other unwaisted dresses. It seemed to have no form. But when it was belted, it did great things for the female figure.”

The POPOVER DRESS, (1942) a versatile wraparound, coverall sort of dress could be used as a house dress, a bathing suit cover-up, dressing gown or glamoured up as a party dress. These dresses were not only a favorite for active women but they also accommodated the inexact sizing and fit of ready-to-wear apparel. When it was introduced it sold for $6.95. McCardellism interpretation of the Popover, “Something that goes over everything. It is an apron one day, a bathrobe the next, a dinner dress, if necessary, with lots of beads.”

CAREER DIVERSITY

McCardell had a series of short term jobs before becoming the assistant to fashion designer Robert Turk who was head designer for Townley Frocks Inc. Opportunity came quite suddenly for the young McCardell when Turk drowned in a swimming accident and she stepped up to design the 1931 collection. She continued as designer till Townley closed is operation in 1939. Hattie Carnegie then hired McCardell to work for her famed dressmaking firm, but that affiliation did not last but one year due to Carnegie’s clients who wanted more elaborate fashions. Then onto a brief stint with Win-Sum, a low-end manufacturer until Townley reopened in 1940. With her distinct style and the importance of her design oeuvre the company soon began issuing its fashion collection under the label “Claire McCardell Clothes by Townley.” She was the first American Designer to have name recognition. By the end of the forties, Townley was Lord and Taylor’s best ready-to-wear seller. In 1944, McCardell was a highly acclaimed American designer and received numerous awards and she eventually appeared on the cover of Time magazine May 2, 1955. BECOMING A FASHION ICON

As a child, McCardell (1095-1958) lived in Frederick, Maryland, the daughter of Adrian and Eleanor McCardell and her early interest in fashion emerged serendipitously. Playful and creative she would cut figures from her mother’s fashion magazines and create paper dolls and fashion imaginary garments. It is not surprising that the spirited young girl began sewing her own clothes as a teenager. After first attending Hood College in Maryland she switched to Parsons in 1925 to pursue her interest in fashion and received her certificate in Costume Design. After years on Seventh Avenue as the recognized pioneer of American sportswear, she returned to Parsons in 1944 as a critic and instructor.

McCARDELL’S WIT

In her book McCardell wrote: "My idea of clothes is the dress that dances well, walks well, sits well; the bathing suit that you can swim in; the ski suit that’s warm; and the house dress that can receive unexpected guests. " A fascinating garment in her collection was the Diaper bathing suit, made of light cotton, with a panel that wrapped up between the legs, and was secured by thin strings. Thank you Claire McCardell we are indebted to your design ingenuity that gave us the ‘AMERICAN LOOK.’

THE WHIMSICALITY OF FLORINE STETTHEIMER

Painter Extraordinaire, Chronicler of New York Society (c)
By Polly Guerin
Dear Florine: I was originally introduced to your whimsicality when I visited the Museum of the City of New York where your sister Carrie's "Stettheimer Dollhouse" is ensconced and to which you had contributed your unique creative inspiration. The dollhouse, a depiction of an upper-class residence of the 1930s, is truly an Art Deco treasure wherein reside the Lilliputian works by your artist friends, including Marcel Duchamp’s “Nude Descending A Staircase,” and sculptures by William Zorach and Gaston Lachaise to name a few. I was so inspired by this dollhouse that I wrote a time-travel murder mystery novel called, “The Dollhouse Murder,” a story that dwells in the fantasy of Miss Carrie’s dollhouse with you and Duchamp as central characters, as well as the Baron and Baroness de Meyer and Alexander Archipenko.
FLORINE’S BRILLIANT CAREER
However, Florine, this is about your brilliant career as painter, poet, designer and social hostess extraordinaire, yet even at your death in 1944 you were somehow unrecognized for your brilliant repartee on the social life of the upper-class in New York between WWI and WWII. This may partially be due to the fact that Florine decided not to show her work in a came to the studio she maintained in the Beaux Arts Building at 80 West 40th Street, on Bryant Park. With its gilded furniture and cellophane drapes Florine’s studio was the background for the fashionistas and artists of the era to convene and socialize.
A FOLKLORIC DECORATIVE STYLE
Florine’s whimsicality in a modernist style, all of her own invention, portrays decorative detail and joyful brilliant colors that gives us pause to admire her as an amazing Art Deco diva. Her paintings reveal a naïve modernism of simple forms and vivid colors depicting friends and family with a wry intimacy and warmth, like Sunday Afternoon in the Country (1917). This fantasy portrayal of the cognoscenti leisurely passing the time include friends from Florine’s circle, The Baron and Baroness de Meyer, the Marquis de Buenavista, and Edward Steichen photographing Marcel Duchamp and Florine at her easel.
A DECORATIVE STYLE
Florine’s paintings were never literal but rather the viewer entered a magical world conceived with a bit of frivolity. In Picnic at Bedford Hills (1918), another example of the artist’s oeuvre, Florine sits alone holding a parasol; her sister Ettie is recumbent on a carpet in conversation with Elie Nadelman and her sister Carrie with Marcel Duchamp are setting out the picnic repast. It recalls a languid summer’s day executed in vivid colors and painted on a field of bright yellow. Florine’s Cathedrals series: The Cathedrals of Broadway (1929) and the Cathedrals of Fifth Avenue (1931) and the Cathedrals of Wall Street (1932) are each crammed with identifiable public figures and places in caricatured allegories. These three paintings reside in the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
HOSTESS OF AN AMERICAN SALON
Florine and her two sisters Miss Carrie and Miss Ettie, and their mother Rosetta presided over a New York salon that had considerable to do with shaping the intellectual and cultural pulse of the city. The artistic cognoscenti of the era were frequent visitors to teas, lunches or dinners, while others in the art circle coveted an invitation. An important addition to Florine’s circle was Marcel Duchamp, an avant-garde artist, a suavely handsome and cultivated personality who felt quite at home in the genteel intellectual circles of the female ménage. Duchamp figures importantly in privileged position in life pervades her work chronicling boating parties, picnics, summertime escapades, parades and society.
BORN TO PRIVILEGE
Florine was born in Rochester, New York (August 29, 187l-May 11, 1944) the fourth of five children to Rosetta Walter and Joseph Stettheimer. The members of her family were wealthy and influential assimilated Jews. Although the father abandoned the family for reasons that are unclear Rosetta never remarried and her three youngest daughters, Carrie, Florine and Ettie remained single and lived with their mother until her death in 1935. The family spent much of Florine’s early life with extensive travels throughout Europe where she began to study art. In the mid-1890s she studied at the Art Students League of New York, but realized her full potential upon her permanent return to New York which was precipitated by the start of World War I.
FLAUNTING PAGEANTRY With MIRTH
Upon assessing Florine’s oeuvre it is clear that her privileged position invades her work with lively, colorful accounts not only of her daily life but in whimsical paintings that chronicle of the upper-class ways of New Yorkers. Look deeper into Florine’s paintings and you will see that this amazing Art Deco diva freely depicted a magical world that remains as enchanting today and evocative of admiration.