Claire McCardell's "Leotards" on the cover of Life (September 1943)

The cover of the September 13 1943 issue of Life featured the latest fashion on college campuses: Leotards!

From Page 47:

“Leotard” is a new word in fashion parlance.  Webster’s unabridged dictionary defines it as a “short, close-fitting sleeveless garment cut low in the neck in front and gusseted between the legs.  It is worn by acrobats and aerial performers.”  Although the description does not exactly fit the strange-looking garments shown on … the cover, the fashion world is calling them “leotards.”  They are in fact more reminiscent of equestriennes’ or jesters’ tights, 17^th century gaskins, and long winter underwear.  Harper’s Bazaar launched the leotard idea, with a few sketches, in January.  By August it appeared in its college-clothes issue as a wartime fashion for the college girl.  Mademoiselle picked it up, also as a college idea.  Vogue ignored it.

Wartime fuel shortages may drive the college girl into this strange silhouette.  College girls, though allegedly faddists, like to be comfortable.  Leotards, with long-sleeved tops as warm as a sweater, and long legs as cozy as slacks, may be the practical solution to chilly classrooms.  With nothing but a brasière and panties underneath, a skirt or jumper over, a girl can be snug and warm indoors or out in this new kind of tights.

The designer’s name is briefly mentioned in the captions.

Claire McCardell, the creator of this “strange” new fashion was one of the most innovative American designers of the twentieth century and, to quote Kohle Yohannan and Nancy Nolf in Claire McCardell: Redefining Modernism, “many of her innovations have become intrinsic to modern fashion."  Working in mid-priced ready to wear, she created women’s clothes that were comfortable and easy to wear while other designers were still producing garments that looked good, but cramped and confined the wearer.  She insisted on buttons that buttoned, and ties that tied, and was famous for producing timeless clothes that could be worn year after year.  “Men are free of the clothes problem,” she once said, “why shouldn’t I follow their example?”

Her first “best seller” was her “monastic dress” which she designed in 1938 for her own use.  Front and back of the dress were interchangeable and it could be worn loose or belted in as the wearer pleased.  However, it was in the 1940s that she came into her own.  With America cut off from Paris—from where most dress manufacturers derived their inspiration—and women looking for more practical clothes in wartime, she became the right designer living in the right time and place.

Among the things she introduced that later became standards, were mix and match separates, “ballet flats” (in response to wartime leather shortages) and “wrap and tie” dresses which could be easily adapted to the wearer’s figure.Her “Pop-over” dress—“a simple, self-aproned, wrap-front denim dress”—was a product of the war years, and became yet another one of her best sellers.  She designed variations of this dress in different materials for every subsequent collection.  McCardell also  liked to experiment with materials that had hitherto not been used for women’s outerwear: lingerie fabrics, children’s prints, mattress ticking.  When the government announced a surplus of weather balloon cotton materials in 1944, she bought a truckload of the stuff.

Claire McCardell continued designing well into the post-war era, producing wearable and timeless clothing while Paris was indulging in the excesses of the "New Look".  She made the cover of Time in 1955.

But back to this cover of Life.  McCardell’s “leotards”, alas, weren’t one of her success stories.  The all-in-one knitted garments were too expensive to produce for sale at her usual prices.  McCardell later revamped the look more cheaply by combining knitted tights with matching pullover tops.

Claire McCardell died of cancer in 1958.

Reference:
Kohle Yohannan and Nancy Nolf
Claire McCardell: Redefining Modernism
New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc., 1998
ISBN 0810943751