of Design, and the Museum at F.I.T. Versions of the "Monastic Dress" are held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and LACMA. In 1990, Life named McCardell one of the 100 most important Americans of the twentieth century. A year later, she was inducted into the Maryland Women's Hall of Fame. In 1998, forty years after her death, three separate retrospectives of Claire McCardell's work were staged at Metropolitan Museum of Art, F.I.T., and the Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore. Fashion designers such as Isaac Mizrahi, Donna Karan, Calvin Klein, Norma Kamali, and Cynthia Rowley all have been influenced by McCardell. Anna Sui's line of spring-summer 1999 was directly inspired by her work. Of McCardell's work Anna Sui said, "What I truly appreciate was her fabric sensibility, even with more constructed fabrics like denim. She made them all look so soft and drapy. The halters she did were so modern. The thing is, you look at some of the things she did, and you can't believe it was the 40s.'' In 2019, the Frederick Art Club launched the Claire McCardell Project to underwrite the creation and installation of a larger-than-life bronze statue of McCardell in her hometown of Frederick, Maryland. The club commissioned award-winning sculptor Sarah Hempel Irani for this monumental task and, thanks to community support, reached its fundraising goal in less than two years. In October 2021, the statue will be placed on a granite pedestal in an elegant garden setting in Frederick’s Carroll Creek Park. Characteristics of McCardell designs 1938 Monastic dress - a bias-cut, tent-shaped garment with dolman sleeves, belted with spaghetti ties that wrap multiple times around the waist to create shape 1942 Popover dress - versatile wrap dress with patch pockets and wide dolman sleeves that could be "popped" over other clothes and used as a housedress; also worn as a dressing gown or party dress Diaper bathing suit - made of light cotton with a panel that wrapped up between the legs, and was secured by thin strings Streamlined wool bathing suits Pockets in everything from capris to evening gowns Ballet slippers as everyday footwear Trouser pockets and pleats in women's wear Zippers on the side instead of the back, enabling women to dress without assistance Revealing sundresses and casual wear Fabric draping and gathering to accentuate the natural shape of the body Use of common, natural-fiber fabrics such as cotton, twill, gingham,