Textiles and Dress

Ellen Louise Demorest

Ellen Louise Demorest (née Curtis, November 15, 1824 – August 10, 1898) was an American businesswoman, fashion arbiter, and milliner, widely credited for inventing mass-produced tissue-paper dressmaking patterns. In 1860, with her husband, William Jennings Demorest, she established a company to sell the patterns, which were adaptations of the latest French fashions, and a magazine to promote them. Her dressmaking patterns made French styles accessible to ordinary women, thus greatly influencing US fashion.

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See also

• ▸First Klan
• ▸John Gould
• ▸Gus Fisher (fashion)

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