SACRED LEGACY ARCHIVES™

Ellen Curtis Demorest

1824-01-01 – 1898-08-10

Portrait of Ellen Curtis Demorest
Ellen Louise DemorestCredit: Jane Cunningham Croly

Life & Legacy

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.

Occupation & Career

inventor, publisher, patternmaker, fashion person, modiste, dressmaker, abolitionist, businessperson, fashion designer

Legacy Highlights

Organizations

New York Medical College · Sorosis

Verified Legacy Record

Sources & Provenance

  1. Wikidata population candidate Q5364917 — wikidata View source

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