Clare Potter Design
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Clare Potter-Trend Setting 1930s-1950s American Fashion Designer
Brief History of Clare Potter
Clare Potter was a fashion designer who was born in Jersey City, New Jersey in 1903. She studied at the Art Students League of New York and began her studies at the Pratt Institute of Design in fine arts. After seeing clothes that Potter designed and made for herself, the director of the Pratt Institute recommended that she study costume design.
In 1925, before her graduation, Potter left Pratt to work for Edward L. Mayer, a wholesale dress manufacturer in Manhattan, where she spent three years developing her skills and designing mid-market sportswear.
In the 1930s she was one of the first American fashion designers to be promoted as an individual design talent. Working under her elided name Clarepotter, she has been credited as one of the inventors of American sportswear. Based in Manhattan, she continued designing through the 1940s and 1950s. Her clothes were renowned for being elegant, but easy-to-wear and relaxed ( favoring well-tailored linens and burnished wools in pants, shorts, pajamas, skirts and other sportswear ), and for their distinctive use of colour.
She founded a ready-to-wear fashion company in Manhattan named Timbertop in 1948. The company shared its name with the turkey farm in West Nyack where Potter and her husband, architect J. Sanford Potter, lived.
By the mid-1950s Clare Potter worked independently from a barn on her farm. Her later clothes were more tailored and dressy than her earlier designs.
In the late 1950s the Potters moved into a Japanese-style house on Lake Nebo in Fort Ann, New York that was designed and built by J. Sanford. In addition to their professional work, they bred Dalmatian dogs.
Sanford Potter died in 1994 and, at the age of 95, Clare Potter died in 1999 at their home in Fort Ann (Source).
Meet Clare Potter (thru vintage photos)
1938-Dress designer Clare Potter wearing a circle-printed dress, sitting on the couch of her West Nyack, New York, home, with Siamese cat in her lap and Dalmatian dog sleeping on the floor.
Photo by Horst P. Horst/Conde Nast via Getty Images
Clare with her Dalmatians.
Her Influence on Fashion
American Fashion Designers in 1935 praised Potter, noting, “Her ideas come not from Paris, but from simply being a very wide-awake, active person who understands the wardrobe requirements of the American woman.”
“Large numbers of American women want clothes that are refined,” Ms. Potter said in a 1948 interview with The New York Times. ”I aim to give them in a medium-priced, ready-to-wear costume what they would find in custom-made styles.”
(Source)
Clare Potter Fashions
“June Day” ensemble, 1947. A: Shirtdress in lavender rayon crepe.
Source: Google Arts & Culture
Clare Potter Cigarette Advertisement from Vogue, September 1st, 1941, the Autumn Issue.
Source: Etsy
“Dinner Duet” a 1950s Pink, Clare Potter Vintage Dress in Rayon Silk Satin Faille w/ original layout image. Stunning and for sale HERE.
Source: Dressing Vintage
Beautiful buttons down the back. Simple, but lovely detail.
Source: Dressing Vintage
The dress below (I think it’s a dress but after a second look maybe pants) is so very slick and stylish and looks extremely comfortable. I will order 3 please!
Source: sarahescamilla.weebly.com
“She likes easy-flowing lines and no trimmings that ‘stuck on’ to detract from the almost classically simple designs of most of her clothes.”
Beryl Wiliams said of Clare Potter
Linen Dress, 1937–38.
Source: The Met
1944 photo – Model wearing a slate blue and white sleeveless dress by Clare Potter, jewelry from Harry Winston (John Rawlings Photo).
Source: Vintage Everyday
During the 1940s, well-known Potter designs included a two-piece bathing suit consisting of separate small top and bloomers.
1943 — Model wearing brown halter top below a white, long-sleeved, cropped jacket and short white skirt with big brown polka-dots; skirt and halter by Clare Potter, white sandals and hair tied back in a mustard-colored scarf.
Source: Flickr
Bermuda 1947- Models Janet Stevenson and Sabine model summerwear by Designers Clare Potter (left) and Dorothy Cox (right). Photographed by Genevieve Naylor.
Source: Flickr
Clare Potter sleeveless blouse in menswear shirting with linen skirt leans against a Buick Roadmaster convertible – Vogue May 15, 1949.
1946-Model is wearing a sand-colored jersey dinner dress with a fluted hemline. Gorgeous!
Source: Flickr
I stumbled upon the below image, while looking at vintage yearbooks online and the dress our lovely beauty is wearing in this 1947 yearbook photo (for the beauty queen comp), feels very much like a Clare Potter gown (similar style to the dress above). I think it’s the belt and the cut of the dress. What are your thoughts?
Source: Digitalnc.org
1953 November Vogue showcases what one wears when they play scrabble. Which is clearly a silk & rayon satin gown by Clare Potter. That is what you wear right?
Source: Flickr
On October 23rd, 1942, Potter designed a blue wool dress that Eleanor Roosevelt wore to meet the King and Queen of England (seen below). Roosevelt had been a fellow founder with Potter and others, of an association of women interested in advancing elegant and fashionable clothing for women, the Fashion Group International, FGI (Source).
Source: Wikipedia
More Fashion Designs
1943 Dress-Photographed by John Rawlings.
Source: Flickr
Sportswear style featuring Bermuda shorts and a low V cut top.
Source: Flickr
1940s skirt with matching blouse.
Source: Flickr
Question Time: Have you ever heard of Clare Potter? Do you like her easy to wear relaxed designs? Share your thoughts & your favourite look in the comment section below.
Further Reading:
- Vintage Fashion Designers (Archived Blog Posts)
- Vintage Fashion 1920s-1960s (Archived Blog Posts)
Liz
I love the elegance of her designs, but I prefer Christian Dior’s “new” look for the 50’s (nipped waist, full skirt) Of course, I’m a total 50’s gal. But I do appreciate the more relaxed, flowing femininity of designs like Clare Potter’s. They look practical and sophisticated at the same time. Taller women look great in these styles!
I agree, but it was really cool to learn about a designer who made an impression in the height of the new look, being the complete opposite. Fashion for all!
Not only have I heard of her but I was lucky enough to grow up with her as my grandmother figure. I still have some of her fashion plate books with sketches. She was such a wonderful woman. She taught me so much. I really enjoyed this article. It’s so fun to see her work still being shared.
OH WOW!!! That is incredible! You are so lucky to have had such an amazing talented woman as your grandmother and that you also have pieces of her with you. Fantastic. Thank you so much for sharing this with me. I really apprecaite it.
Liz