By the 1940s the New York fashion industry had come into its own. Sportswear, which had evolved from its origins to include simple casual wear for travel, leisure, town and country, was at the centre of this shift.

Drawing on an array of sources, this book examines how New York sportswear evolved during the 1930s and 1940s to become the definitive American style. It reveals how designers such as Claire McCardell, Clare Potter and Tina Leser created a fashion identity for New York that was as dynamic and modern as the city itself.

Author Rebecca Arnold interrogates the American ideal of athletic, long-limbed women and looks for the first time at how sportswear impacted and was impacted by ideas of patriotism and democracy, as well as its links to notions of cleanliness and hygiene, and to 1930s theories of body image and contemporary dance.

As part of the Foundations of Fashion Studies series, this classic text now includes a new foreword by Emma McClendon and a new afterword and further reading list by the author.