Notable Figures

This isn't a complete history of fashion. It's a short list of people whose work still shows up, directly or indirectly, in the techniques, tools and materials covered elsewhere on this site. Some were designers. Others invented the machines and paper patterns that made home dressmaking possible in the first place.

The machine: Elias Howe and Isaac Singer

Elias Howe patented a lockstitch sewing machine in the United States in 1846, with an eye-pointed needle, a shuttle beneath the cloth and an automatic feed. The lockstitch, with a top thread and a lower thread locked together in the fabric, is still the stitch made by every domestic sewing machine.

Isaac Merritt Singer patented his own improved machine in 1851, with a straight needle moving vertically, a presser foot to hold the fabric, and a treadle that freed both hands. Singer's company was even more influential as a business. In 1856, his partner Edward Clark introduced a hire-purchase (instalment) plan that let families buy a machine they couldn't afford outright. The same year, after years of patent lawsuits, Howe, Singer and two other manufacturers pooled their patents in the "Sewing Machine Combination", an early patent pool that allowed mass production to go ahead. Within a few decades, a sewing machine was a common household possession. See Domestic Sewing Machine.

The couturier: Charles Frederick Worth (1825-1895)

An Englishman who trained in London drapery shops before moving to Paris, Worth founded his house in 1858 and is widely regarded as the father of haute couture. Before him, a dressmaker usually made what the client asked for. Worth designed collections in advance, showed them on live models, and sold made-to-measure versions of his own designs, with his name on the label. That model, a designer's name, seasonal collections and a fashion house, is still how much of the fashion industry works. Empress Eugénie of France was among his most important clients.

The paper pattern: Ellen Demorest and the Buttericks

Ellen Curtis Demorest (Mme. Demorest) is widely credited with mass-producing tissue-paper dress patterns for home sewists. From 1860, she and her husband sold patterns of the latest French fashions through their quarterly magazine, Mme. Demorest's Mirror of Fashions, and through their New York shop. In their most successful year, 1876, they sold more than three million patterns.

Ebenezer and Ellen Butterick began selling graded tissue-paper patterns in 1863 from their home in Sterling, Massachusetts. The same design was made in a range of sizes, so a home sewist no longer had to scale a one-size pattern up or down herself. Ellen is said to have been frustrated by patterns that came in only one size, and Ebenezer, a tailor, knew how to grade. Their first patterns were for men's and boys' clothes, with women's patterns following in 1866. Within a year they had a factory in New York, and by 1876 E. Butterick & Co. had 100 branch offices and 1,000 agencies across the United States and Canada. Their magazine The Delineator (1873) became one of the leading women's magazines. Every multi-size pattern sold today follows the system they popularised. See Grading for the two meanings of the word.

The bra: Mary Phelps Jacob (1891-1970)

A New York socialite, Jacob improvised a soft brassiere from two handkerchiefs and ribbon in 1913, when her boned corset showed through a sheer evening dress. She patented it in 1914, and later sold the patent to the Warner Brothers Corset Company. She wasn't the first to separate bust support from the corset: the French corsetière Herminie Cadolle had done so in 1889. But Jacob's patent is a landmark in the move away from rigid corsetry. See Evolution of Undergarments.

The bias cut: Madeleine Vionnet (1876-1975)

Vionnet trained in London and at the Paris houses of Callot Soeurs and Jacques Doucet, and opened her own house in 1912. She closed it during the First World War, reopened afterwards, and closed it for good in 1939. She didn't invent cutting on the bias, but she was the first to build complete garments around it. She draped her designs on a small wooden mannequin rather than drafting them flat, and let the fabric's diagonal stretch shape dresses that followed the body without corsets, darts or, often, fastenings. She also campaigned against copying and introduced progressive working conditions for her employees, including paid holidays and maternity leave. See 1930s Bias-Cut Silhouette, Bias and Draping vs. Flat Pattern.

Comfort and simplicity: Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel (1883-1971)

Chanel made comfortable, unstructured clothing fashionable. She used jersey, then considered a fabric for underwear, for dresses and suits from the First World War onward, and popularised the straight, easy line of the 1920s and the little black dress. When she reopened her house in 1954, her soft, braid-trimmed tweed suits offered an alternative to the structured New Look.

American sportswear: Claire McCardell (1905-1958)

McCardell designed practical, comfortable ready-to-wear for American women: separates, wrap dresses, and clothes made from denim, jersey, seersucker and cotton when wartime shortages restricted wool and silk. Her Popover dress of the early 1940s, an inexpensive wrap-front dress that could be worn over other clothes, became a classic. Her approach, clothes that were easy to wear, wash and move in, shaped American casual fashion.

The New Look: Christian Dior (1905-1957)

Dior's first collection, in February 1947, revived the cinched waist and full skirt after years of wartime restrictions, and set the silhouette of the next decade. He introduced a new line every season until his death in 1957. See The New Look.

Youth fashion: Mary Quant (1930-2023)

Quant opened her London boutique, Bazaar, in 1955, and designed fun, affordable clothes for young women that broke with the formal fashion of their mothers. She's the designer most associated with the miniskirt, along with tights, PVC and bold, simple shapes. See 1960s Mod Silhouette.