Clare Potter
| Clare Potter | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Clare Meyer July 7, 1903 Jersey City, New Jersey |
| Died | January 5, 1999 (aged 95) Fort Ann, New York |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Art Students League of New York and Pratt Institute of Design |
| Occupation | Fashion designer |
| Awards | 1937 Lord and Taylor Women's Sportswear Award, 1939 Neiman Marcus Fashion Award, 1946 Coty Award |
Clare Potter was a fashion designer who was born in Jersey City, New Jersey in 1903. 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, and for their distinctive use of colour. She founded a ready-to-wear fashion company in Manhattan named Timbertop in 1948, and in the 1960s she also established a wholesale company to manufacture fashions. Potter was one of the 17 women gathered together by Edna Woolman Chase, editor-in-chief of Vogue to form the Fashion Group International, Inc., in 1928.
Born Clare Meyer in Jersey City, just across the Hudson River from Manhattan, 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.
Following a six-month hiatus in Mexico, Potter returned to Manhattan in 1930 and gained employment with the ready-to-wear firm of Charles W. Nudelman Inc. on Seventh Avenue, which specialized in affordable fashion.
Unusually, at a time when designers for large companies were not acknowledged by name, Potter was promoted as a named designer by Dorothy Shaver, then vice-president of Lord & Taylor department store. Potter was one of the first American designers to achieve such name recognition.
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