Dressmaker

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Pierre Balmain and the actress Ruth Ford, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1947 Pierre Balmain and Ruth Ford, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, November 9, 1947.jpg
Pierre Balmain and the actress Ruth Ford, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1947

A dressmaker, also known as a seamstress, is a person who makes clothing for women, such as dresses, blouses, and evening gowns. Dressmakers were historically known as mantua-makers, and are also known as a modiste or fabrician. [1]

Contents

Notable dressmakers

Jean-Baptiste Jules Trayer, Breton seamstresses in a shop (1854). Before the Industrial Revolution, a seamstress did hand sewing. Jean Baptiste Jules Trayer Bretonische Schneiderinnen 1854.jpg
Jean-Baptiste Jules Trayer, Breton seamstresses in a shop (1854). Before the Industrial Revolution, a seamstress did hand sewing.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sewing</span> Craft of fastening or attaching objects using stitches made with a needle and thread

Sewing is the craft of fastening or attaching objects using stitches made with a sewing needle and thread. Sewing is one of the oldest of the textile arts, arising in the Paleolithic era. Before the invention of spinning yarn or weaving fabric, archaeologists believe Stone Age people across Europe and Asia sewed fur and leather clothing using bone, antler or ivory sewing-needles and "thread" made of various animal body parts including sinew, catgut, and veins.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ready-to-wear</span> Mass-produced clothing in standard sizes

Ready-to-wear (RTW) – also called prêt-à-porter, or off-the-rack or off-the-peg in casual use – is the term for garments sold in finished condition in standardized sizes, as distinct from made-to-measure or bespoke clothing tailored to a particular person's frame. In other words, it is a piece of clothing that was mass produced in different sizes and sold that way instead of it being designed and sewn for one person. The term off-the-peg is sometimes used for items other than clothing, such as handbags. It is the opposite of haute couture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pattern grading</span>

Pattern grading is the process of turning base size or sample size patterns into additional sizes using a size specification sheet or grading increments. This can be done manually or digitally using computerized pattern drafting software.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Frederick Worth</span> English fashion designer (1825–1895)

Charles Frederick Worth was an English fashion designer who founded the House of Worth, one of the foremost fashion houses of the 19th and early 20th centuries. He is considered by many fashion historians to be the father of haute couture. Worth is also credited with revolutionising the business of fashion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Madeleine Vionnet</span> French fashion designer (1876–1975)

Madeleine Vionnet was a French fashion designer. Vionnet trained in London before returning to France to establish her first fashion house in Paris in 1912. Although it was forced to close in 1914 at the outbreak of the First World War, it re-opened after the war and Vionnet became one of the leading designers of 1920s-30s Paris. Vionnet was forced to close her house in 1939 and retired in 1940.

Clothing terminology comprises the names of individual garments and classes of garments, as well as the specialized vocabularies of the trades that have designed, manufactured, marketed and sold clothing over hundreds of years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mantua (clothing)</span> Draped and pleated womans dress

A mantua is an article of women's clothing worn in the late 17th century and 18th century. Initially a loose gown, the later mantua was an overgown or robe typically worn over stays, stomacher and either a co-ordinating or contrasting petticoat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pattern (sewing)</span> Template from which the parts of a garment are traced onto fabric before being cut out

In sewing and fashion design, a pattern is the template from which the parts of a garment are traced onto woven or knitted fabrics before being cut out and assembled. Patterns are usually made of paper, and are sometimes made of sturdier materials like paperboard or cardboard if they need to be more robust to withstand repeated use. The process of making or cutting patterns is sometimes compounded to the one-word Patternmaking, but it can also be written pattern(-)making or pattern cutting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Callot Soeurs</span> French fashion house

Callot Soeurs was one of the leading fashion design houses of the 1910s and 1920s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grain (textile)</span>

For woven textiles, grain refers to the orientation of the weft and warp threads. The three named grains are straight grain, cross grain, and the bias grain. In sewing, a pattern piece can be cut from fabric in any orientation, and the chosen grain or orientation will affect the way the fabric hangs and stretches and thus the fit of a garment. Generally speaking a piece is said to be cut on a particular grain when the longest part of the pattern or the main seams of the finished piece are aligned with that grain. Non-woven materials such as felt, interfacing or leather do not have a grain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1930–1945 in Western fashion</span> Costume and fashion from the 1930s to the end of World War II

The most characteristic North American fashion trend from the 1930s to 1945 was attention at the shoulder, with butterfly sleeves and banjo sleeves, and exaggerated shoulder pads for both men and women by the 1940s. The period also saw the first widespread use of man-made fibers, especially rayon for dresses and viscose for linings and lingerie, and synthetic nylon stockings. The zipper became widely used. These essentially U.S. developments were echoed, in varying degrees, in Britain and Europe. Suntans became fashionable in the early 1930s, along with travel to the resorts along the Mediterranean, in the Bahamas, and on the east coast of Florida where one can acquire a tan, leading to new categories of clothes: white dinner jackets for men and beach pajamas, halter tops, and bare midriffs for women.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of fashion design</span> Evolution of fashion world

History of fashion design refers specifically to the development of the purpose and intention behind garments, shoes, accessories, and their design and construction. The modern industry, based around firms or fashion houses run by individual designers, started in the 19th century with Charles Frederick Worth who, beginning in 1858, was the first designer to have his label sewn into the garments he created.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fashion design</span> Art of applying design and aesthetics to clothing and accessories

Fashion design is the art of applying design, aesthetics, clothing construction and natural beauty to clothing and its accessories. It is influenced by culture and different trends, and has varied over time and place. "A fashion designer creates clothing, including dresses, suits, pants, and skirts, and accessories like shoes and handbags, for consumers. He or she can specialize in clothing, accessory, or jewelry design, or may work in more than one of these areas."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hart Schaffner Marx</span> American menswear manufacturer

Hart Schaffner Marx is an American manufacturer of ready-to-wear menswear owned by New York–based Authentic Brands Group. With origins dating to a family business in 1872 Chicago and incorporated in 1911 as "Hart Schaffner & Marx", the company is now located in Des Plaines, Illinois.

<i>Haute couture</i> Creation of exclusive, custom-fitted clothing

Haute couture is the creation of exclusive custom-fitted high-end fashion design. The term haute couture is French, "haute" meaning "high" or "elegant," and "couture" translating to "sewing" or "dressmaking." The term haute couture generally refers to a specific type of upper garment common in Europe during the 16th to the 18th century, or to the upper portion of a modern dress to distinguish it from the skirt and sleeves. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, Paris became the centre of a growing industry that focused on making outfits from high-quality, expensive, often unusual fabric and sewn with extreme attention to detail and finished by the most experienced and capable of sewers—often using time-consuming, hand-executed techniques. Couture translates literally from French as "dressmaking", sewing, or needlework and is also used as a common abbreviation of haute couture and can often refer to the same thing in spirit.

Sewing is the craft of fastening or attaching objects using stitches made with needle and thread. Sewing is one of the oldest of the textile arts, arising in the Paleolithic Era. Although usually associated with clothing and household linens, sewing is used in a variety of crafts and industries, including shoemaking, upholstery, sailmaking, bookbinding and the manufacturing of some kinds of sporting goods. Sewing is the fundamental process underlying a variety of textile arts and crafts, including embroidery, tapestry, quilting, appliqué and patchwork.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lining (sewing)</span> Inner layer of fabric, fur, or other material

In sewing and tailoring, a lining is an inner layer of fabric, fur, or other material inserted into clothing, hats, luggage, curtains, handbags and similar items.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vionnet (company)</span> Italian luxury haute couture label

Vionnet is an haute couture label founded by the French couturier Madeleine Vionnet. Established in 1912, the house of Vionnet closed doors in 1939. Vionnet was relaunched by Guy and Arnaud de Lummen in the mid-1990s with perfumes and accessories, and then in 2006 with ready-to-wear collections. In 2012, Vionnet was purchased by the Kazakh businesswoman Goga Ashkenazi. In 2023, Chimhaeres Investments purchased the brand.

A.& L. Tirocchi Gowns was a business founded in 1911 in Providence, Rhode Island, by sisters Anna and Laura Tirocchi. They were dressmakers whose custom work was well known during the 1920s and '30s. They specialized in custom-designed gowns for the city's elite women, produced in their multi-story house on Broadway, which housed the custom business and their family. They operated their business until 1947, despite competition from retail manufactured clothing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Berta Berkovich Kohút</span> Dressmaker and Auschwitz survivor (1921–2021)

Berta Berkovich Kohút was a Czechoslovakian-born survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp. By the time of her death in 2021, she was the last surviving seamstress who lived through internment at the camp by creating dresses for the wives of Nazi officers.

References

  1. Elster, Charles Harrington (2006). The Big Book of Beastly Mispronunciations: The Complete Opinionated Guide for the Careful Speaker. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 112. ISBN   978-0-618-42315-6.

Further reading