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Vera Maxwell

1942 · synthetic fiber · Costume Institute

Vera Maxwell was at her inventive period in the nineteen-thirties and nineteen-forties, making her mark on Seventh Avenue. She began as a designer for Adler & Adler in the nineteen-thirties and was one of a group of women designers promoted by Dorothy Shaver, president of Lord & Taylor. In 1939 Maxwell began contracting with Brows, Jacobson & Linde, a sportswear and tailored clothing manufacturer, to begin her work as an independent American designer. Highly successful with this venture, she opened Vera Maxwell Originals in 1947. This ensemble is creative and multi-faceted, aligned with her fashion sense for sporty separates that also might be coordinated. The bloomer playsuit can be worn on its own or under a skirt and vest for perhaps business attire. The coat is tailored. The fabrics, "parachute cloth" or cellulose acetate, and "Celanese rayon" are important for their industrial inventive significance. Parachute cloth, used for the bloomers, was derived from cellulose acetate. Celanese Corporation patented the fabric, Fortisan, for its remarkable tensile strength. The development and use of Fortisan was a war effort, in development before the 1941 embargo on Japanese silk. Maxwell used other derivatives, "Celanese rayon," for the skirt, jacket, and coat fabrics. Brooklyn Museum displayed the suit in their wartime exhibit, "Inventions for Victory," an exhibition that featured objects made of materials developed and used by American companies for war equipment production.

Artist

Vera Maxwell

Date

1942

Medium

synthetic fiber

Culture

American

Department

Costume Institute

Credit line

Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of Celanese Corporation of America, 1943