The bulk of the collection consists of approximately 9,000 fashion sketches produced by Claire McCardell for Townley Frocks between 1931 and just before her death in 1958. All sketches are rendered in pencil, with 163 accompanied by fabric swatches. In addition to the Townley sketches, the collection includes 510 sketches McCardell created for Hattie Carnegie and 163 sketches she created for Win-Sum between 1939 and 1940, during the period when Townley had temporarily ceased production.

Fellow Townley designers Arnold Isaacs (1930-), who in the early 1950s had begun using the name "Scaasi," and Mildred Orrick are also represented in the collection. The 18 Scassi sketches were produced for Townley's "Urban" label during McCardell's final season and Orrick contributed approximately 250 sketches for McCardell's line during McCardell's illness and immediately following her death.

The collection includes one folder of ephemera, mostly on Townley stationery and order forms, featuring jottings regarding materials and garment numbers. There is also a sketch of what appears to be a garment manufacturing company, with areas labeled "shipping" and "piece goods," and three items of correspondence between Lake Dress Manufacturing Company of New York and W. I. Young of Norfolk, Virginia, dated 1932.

The collection includes no personal materials, nor does it include professional correspondence apart from the Lake-Young items in the Ephemera series.

It is important to note that the years used to organize the collection are approximations based on inscriptions found on numerous sketches.