History & culture

American tailor who in 1863 introduced graded, multi-size tissue paper sewing patterns sold to home sewers, founding a company that made dressmaking accessible beyond professional tailors.

American inventor who patented a working lockstitch sewing machine in 1846, using a needle with an eye near its point and a shuttle carrying a second thread.

A dress style with a high waistline gathered just below the bust and a slim, flowing skirt, fashionable in the late 18th and early 19th centuries and named for the Napoleonic era.