A dressmaker is a person who makes custom clothing A feature of all modern human societies is the wearing of clothing, a category encompassing a wide variety of materials that cover the body. The primary purpose of clothing is functional, as a protection from the elements. Clothes also enhance safety during hazardous activities such as hiking and cooking, by providing a barrier between the skin for women, such as dresses A dress is a garment consisting of a skirt with an attached bodice or with a matching bodice giving the effect of a one-piece garment, blouses A blouse is a loose-fitting upper garment that was formerly worn by workmen, peasants, artists, women and children. It is typically gathered at the waist so that it hangs loosely ("blouses") over the wearer's body. Today, the word most commonly refers to a woman's shirt but can also refer to a man's shirt if it is a loose-fitting style (, and evening gowns A gown is a (usually) loose outer garment from knee- to full-length worn by men and women in Europe from the early Middle Ages to the seventeenth century (and continuing today in certain professions); later, gown was applied to any woman's garment consisting of a bodice and attached skirt. Also called a mantua-maker (historically) or a modiste.
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History of dressmaking
The Oxford English Dictionary first recorded 'dressmaker' in 1803. Throughout the nineteenth century and until the rise of ready-to-wear, most women who did not make their own clothes at home employed a dressmaker, who copied or adapted the latest clothing ideas from Paris, London or other fashion centres, based on printed illustrations called fashion plates A fashion plate is, literally, an illustration demonstrating the highlights of fashionable styles of clothing.
A dressmaker is often professionally trained. Many learn in an apprentice role, under the tutelage of an established dressmaker, while some learn in formal school settings. Still others learn through years of trial and error. Dressmaking methods involve measurements, a trial garment, called a "muslin" or "toile", and several fittings.
Custom dressmakers also create clothing for clients with unique needs, such as performers, artists, disabled or wheelchair-users, wearers of prosthetic devices, vintage or fashion-forward aficionados, and historical re-enactors. They can also recreate, redesign, and reinvent existing garments (such as updating a great-grandmother's gown for modern day use). Some have very specific specialties, such as embroidery, reweaving, and restoring garments. Some are designers who can create a garment entirely "from scratch", and some require a pattern or an existing garment to use as a guide.
Notable dressmakers
- Charles Frederick Worth Charles Frederick Worth , widely considered the Father of Haute Couture, was an English-born fashion designer of the 19th century
- Isabel Toledo Isabel Toledo is a Cuban-born American fashion designer based in New York
- David Emanuel
- Madeleine Vionnet Madeleine Vionnet was a French fashion designer. Called the "Queen of the bias cut" and "the architect among dressmakers", Vionnet is best-known today for her elegant Grecian-style dresses and for introducing the bias cut to the fashion world
Related terms
- Dressmaker as an adjective In grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntactic role is to modify a noun or pronoun, giving more information about the noun or pronoun's referent. Collectively, adjectives form one of the traditional English eight parts of speech, though linguists today distinguish adjectives from words such as determiners that also used to be considered denotes clothing made in the style Fashion, a general term for the style and custom prevalent at a given time, in its most common usage refers to costume or clothing style. The more technical term, costume, has become so linked in the public eye with the term "fashion" that the more general term "costume" has in popular use mostly been relegated to special of a dressmaker, frequently in the term dressmaker details which includes ruffles In sewing and dressmaking, a ruffle, frill, or furbelow is a strip of fabric, lace or ribbon tightly gathered or pleated on one edge and applied to a garment, bedding, or other textile as a form of trimming. A ruffle without gathers or pleats may also be made by cutting a curved strip of fabric and applying the inner or shorter edge to the garment, frills, ribbon A ribbon or riband is a thin band of flexible material, typically cloth but also plastic or sometimes metal, used primarily for binding and tying. Cloth ribbons, which most commonly includes silk, are often used in connection with dress, but also applied for innumerable useful, ornamental and symbolic purposes; cultures around the world use this or braid A braid is a complex structure or pattern formed by intertwining three or more strands of flexible material such as textile fibres, wire, or human hair. Compared to the process of weaving a wide sheet of cloth from two separate, perpendicular groups of strands (warp and weft), a braid is usually long and narrow, with each component strand trim Trim or trimming in clothing and home decorating is applied ornament, such as gimp, passementerie, ribbon, ruffles, or, as a verb, to apply such ornament. Dressmaker in this sense is contrasted to tailored Although the term dates to the thirteenth century, tailor took on its modern sense in the late eighteenth century, and now refers to makers of men's and women's suits, coats, trousers, and similar garments, usually of wool, linen, or silk and has fallen out of use since the rise of casual wear In the European tradition, casual is the dress code which emphasizes comfort and personal expression over presentation and uniformity. It includes a very wide variety of costume, so it is perhaps better defined by what it isn't than what it is. The following are not considered casual wear: in the mid-twentieth century.
- Mantua-maker, in the eighteenth century a maker of mantuas A Mantua is an article of women's clothing worn in the late seventeenth century and eighteenth century. Originally a loose gown, the later mantua was an overgown or robe typically worn over stays, stomacher and a co-ordinating petticoat, or in general a dressmaker.
- Modiste, a maker of fashionable clothing and accessories, with the implication that the articles made reflect the current Paris Paris ([paʁi] in French, pronounced /ˈpærɪs/ in English) is the capital and largest city of France. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region (or Paris Region, French: Région parisienne). The city of Paris, within its administrative limits largely unchanged since 1860, has an estimated modes.
- Sewing professional is the most general term for those who make their living by sewing, teaching, writing about sewing, or retailing sewing supplies. She or he may work out of her home, a studio, or retail shop, and may work part-time or full-time. She or he may be any or all or the following sub-specialities:
- A custom clothier makes custom garments one at a time, to order, to meet an individual customer's needs and preferences.
- A custom dressmaker specializes in women's custom apparel, including day dresses, careerwear, suits, evening or bridal wear, sportswear, or lingerie.
- A tailor makes custom menswear-style jackets and the skirts or trousers that go with them, for men or women.
- An alterations specialist or alterationist adjusts the fit of completed garments, usually ready-to-wear, or restyles them. Note that while all tailors can do alterations, by no means can all alterationists do tailoring.
- Designers choose combinations of line, proportion, color, and texture for intended garments. They may have no sewing or patternmaking skills, and may only sketch or conceptualize garments.
- Patternmakers flat draft the shapes and sizes of the numerous pieces of a garment by hand using paper and measuring tools or by computer using AutoCAD based software, or by draping muslin on a dressform.
- A wardrobe coěnsultant or fashion advisor recommends styles and colors for a client.
- A seamstress is someone who sews seams, or in other words, a machine operator in a factory who may not have the skills to make garments from scratch or to fit them on a real body. This term is not a synonym for dressmaker. Prior to the Industrail Revolution, a seamstress did handsewing, especially under the putting-out system The putting-out system was a means of subcontracting work. It was also known as the workshop system. In putting-out, work was contracted by a central agent to subcontractors who completed the work in their own facility, usually their own home. Older variants are seamster, sempstress.
- Sewist is a relatively new term, combining the words "sew" and "artist", to describe someone who creates sewn works of art, which can include clothing or other items made with sewn elements.
See also
- Fashion design Fashion design is the applied art dedicated to clothing and lifestyle accessories created within the cultural and social influences of a specific time. It is considered to have a planned obsolescence usually of one to two seasons. A season is defined as either autumn/winter or spring/summer
- Tailor Although the term dates to the thirteenth century, tailor took on its modern sense in the late eighteenth century, and now refers to makers of men's and women's suits, coats, trousers, and similar garments, usually of wool, linen, or silk
- Haute Couture Haute couture refers to the creation of exclusive custom-fitted clothing. Haute couture is made to order for a specific customer, and it is usually made from high-quality, expensive fabric and sewn with extreme attention to detail and finish by the most experienced and capable seamstresses, often using time-consuming, hand-executed techniques
- Bespoke Bespoke is a British English term employed in a variety of applications to mean an item custom-made to the buyer's specification. While applied to many items now, from computer software to luxury car appointments, the term historically was only applied to tailored clothing, shirts and other parts of men's apparel involving measurement and fitting
References
- Butterick Publishing Company: "The Art of Garment Cutting, Fitting and Making", 1894.
- Deckert, Barbara: Sewing for Plus Sizes: Design, Fit and Construction for Ample Apparel, Taunton, 1999, Appendix B: How to Find, Select, and Work With a Custom Clothier, pp. 142-143.
- Kirke, Betty: "Madeleine Vionnet", Chronicle Books, 1998.
- Picken, Mary Brooks: The Fashion Dictionary, Funk and Wagnalls, 1957.
Categories: Fashion occupations | Sewing | Artisans
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