They are the dramatis personae of American fashion: magazine editors Carmel Snow, Edna Woolman Chase, and Diana Vreeland; designers Elizabeth Hawes and Claire McCardell; retail leaders Dorothy Shaver and Marjorie Griswold; writers Lois Long and Virginia Pope; photographer Louise Dahl-Wolfe; and publicist Eleanor Lambert. Not quite a dozen strong, collectively these women instituted a pivot before and after World War II from the dominance of French couturiers and their expensive, made-to-order garments to American designers eager to produce affordable ready-to-wear. It was adieu to all things French. The American Look was born.
The protagonist in this revolution was World War II. By the late 1930s and into the early 1940s, the Germans were advancing across Europe, country by country. But the French upper class, either idealists or simply oblivious, believed their beautiful capital would remain unsullied. Despite nightly blackouts, heating that barely hissed in radiators, and rising costs, the couture houses remained open, determined to impress the American fashion press, especially Snow, the influential editor of Harper’s Bazaar in New York.
