Dressmaking & Tailoring
Dressmaking: Ties and Cables
The use of simple ties is one of the great detail innovations of American fashion. Claire
McCardell revolutionized modern clothing with her ingenious use of ties. Countless dresses
— made from fabrics that ranged from printed calico cottons to pleated wool jerseys — were
custom-fitted by the newly-empowered wearer as she wrapped and tied McCardell’s
attached strings around her ribcage, torso, and waistline.
Isabel Toledo uses the tie in her "suspension" dresses. Here,
ties are structural elements from which Toledo puffs and drapes
fabric to make her Hermaphrodite dresses.
