About
I am an award winning journalist and the author of the critically acclaimed book CLAIRE McCARDELL: THE DESIGNER WHO SET WOMEN FREE, which came out in June of 2025 from Simon & Schuster and was named one of The New York Times’s 100 Notable Books of 2025. CLAIRE McCARDELL was hailed as a best book of the year by NPR, Time, Kirkus, The Washington Post, New York Post, and many others. It received rave reviews from Oprah Daily, The Atlantic, Elle, Forbes, Harper's Bazaar, and on All Things Considered and Morning Edition. The biography was longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, and selected as an Amazon Editor’s pick for Best History. The New York Times Book Review calls it an exceptional biography and an essential read that “puts the American fashion icon Claire McCardell back in the pantheon.”
I am currently working on my second book—a true crime object biography about the famous Ruby Slippers from “The Wizard of Oz.” It’s forthcoming from Dutton.
My writing career encompasses cultural criticism, narrative nonfiction, investigative journalism, short fiction, and memoir. I've been widely published in places like The New Yorker, The New York Times, Harper’s, The Washington Post Magazine, and The Southern Review, among others. My nonfiction has earned recognition in The Best American Essays anthology and I am a two-time recipient of the Independent Artist Award for fiction from The Maryland State Arts Council. I've been a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellow and in 2023, I became the first literary artist to win Maryland’s prestigious Mary Sawyers Imboden Prize, given in recognition of artists who demonstrate excellence in mastery of craft, depth of artistic exploration, and unique vision. I teach graduate level writing in Baltimore where I live.You can learn more at eedickinson.com
Featured Work
Claire McCardell: The Designer Who Set Women Free
The riveting hidden history of Claire McCardell—the most influential fashion designer you've never heard of.
Claire McCardell forever changed American fashion. In fact, much of what we wear today can be traced back to her: ballet flats, mix-and-match separates, wrap dresses, hoodies, leggings, denim in womenswear, and more. She was compared to Albert Einstein for the prophetic original creations that she made over her three-decade career. But most importantly, she designed clothes to support a woman's independence. She tossed out corsets in favor of a comfortably elegant look. She insisted on pockets, during a time when male designers didn't see a need for them. She made zippers easy to reach because, as she said, a woman "may live alone and like it, but you may regret it if you wrench your arm trying to zip a back zipper into place."
After World War II, McCardell fought the severe, hyper-feminized silhouette that was championed by predominantly male designers. Leading the charge was Christian Dior, who favored tightly cinched waists and towering high heels. Dior claimed that he wanted to "save women from nature." McCardell, by contrast, wanted to set women free. Claire McCardell became, as the young journalist Betty Friedan called her in 1955, "The Gal Who Defied Dior." And yet it is Dior's name that we remember today.
This book tells the forgotten story of Claire McCardell and offers an unprecedented look inside a savvy mind that was steadily building an empire at a time when women rarely made it to the upper echelons of business. She was one of the first American designers to have her name carried on the clothing that she designed. McCardell defied gender expectations not just in her professional life, but her personal life as well. She was raised to be a homemaker, yet she chose to remain single until nearly forty years old and didn't have any children of her own.
As entertaining as it is enlightening, this book illuminates how Claire McCardell became a global sensation who imagined, and created, something that didn't yet fully exist: American sportswear. This book is, at its core, the story of our bodies and our rights to choose how we dress, which is a symbol of our right to choose how we live.
