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The queens’ dressmakers : Women’s work and the clothing trades in late seventeenth-century London
Bendall, Sarah A.
Bendall, Sarah A.
Author
Abstract
Increased patterns of consumption during the late seventeenth century afforded new opportunities in the fashion trades for women, establishing mantua-making as an enduring form of female employment. The rise of these women has not been well documented in England or outside of the guilds, organisations that traditionally sought to marginalise the place of women in the craft trades. This article utilises verb and noun methodologies, alongside qualitative and quantitative analyses, to examine the household accounts of Queens Catherine of Braganza and Mary II dating from 1684–94. These accounts demonstrate that women’s skilled work in an essential sector of pre-industrial labour was often characterised by ambiguity. Occupational titles, when given, often undersold the labour performed by women at this crucial time in a fast-evolving marketplace, where they competed with male tailors for patronage and favour. Early English dressmakers relied on their knowledge and training in both seamstressing and tailoring, their associations with new, fashionable and highly desirable French couturières and forms of female social capital for success. Significantly, the evidence found in their bills offers new ways of reconstructing women’s work tasks, skills and recompense, challenging previously held assumptions about women’s expertise during the early modern period.
Keywords
dressmakers, mantua-makers, tailors, seamstresses, women’s work, clothing trades, skill, wages, seventeenth century, making knowledge, couturières
Date
2023
Type
Journal article
Journal
Women's History Review
Book
Volume
32
Issue
3
Page Range
389-414
Article Number
ACU Department
Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences
Faculty of Education and Arts
Faculty of Education and Arts
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Source URL
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Open Access Status
License
All rights reserved
File Access
Controlled