In 1942, American designer Claire McCardell created the 'Popover' dress, a denim wrap dress with oversized pockets and a practical, casual silhouette. McCardell sold more than 75,000 of these dresses, demonstrating the widespread appeal of denim as a fashion fabric beyond work pants. Her design, made from sturdy denim, challenged the notion that denim was only for manual labor and helped establish it as a versatile material for women's casual wear.

McCardell's Popover dress appeared at a time when American poets were increasingly interested in the everyday and the functional, from the Objectivists to the New York School. The dress's name—'Popover'—suggests a kind of spontaneity and ease that resonates with the improvisational spirit of poets like Frank O'Hara. The commercial success of the dress also illustrated the growing intersection of fashion and art, a theme that poets like Anne Sexton would later explore in their work.