Claire McCardell
“[McCardell] is known as the inventor of American sportswear or ready-to-wear,” Minniti says. Which is, you know, a pretty big claim to fame. Her simple silhouettes and frugal use of fabrics (particularly during WWII) helped shape the democratic and casual sensibility that we associate with American ready-to-wear today. Her influence was so great that in 1950, President Harry S. Truman presented her with the Women’s National Press Club Award, making her the first fashion designer to be voted one of America’s Women of Achievement.