dress-maker
(ˈdrɛsmeɪkə(r))
Also dressmaker.
a. A maker of dresses; spec. a woman who makes dresses for those of her own sex. Also attrib., designating clothes, etc., made by a dress-maker or resembling such garments.
| 1803 Morning Herald 12 Feb. 1/2 To Milliners and Dress⁓makers.—Wanted immediately, two Persons who have lived as First Hands in respectable private Houses of Business. 1828 in Webster. 1832 W. Irving Alhambra I. 289 The dress-makers, and the jewellers, and the artificers in gold and silver. 1838 Dickens Nich. Nick. x, The situation I have made interest to procure..is with a Milliner and dressmaker. 1904 Westm. Gaz. 28 Apr. 4/2 Robes that really look like quite expensive dressmaker frocks. 1907 Ibid. 5 Jan. 13/1 Perhaps I should not say tailor suit, but dress⁓maker cloth suit, for those charming draped bodices..are..more the province of the dressmaker than the tailor. 1944 New Yorker 7 Oct. 54/2 Simple clothes softened with a bit of dressmaker detail. 1946 Woman & Beauty Feb. 120/1 Black crêpe-de-chine. Lovely for dressmaker suits. 1968 J. Ironside Fashion Alphabet 80 Dressmaker suit, a suit made by a dressmaker, usually softer than a tailor-made and using very little tailor's canvas. |
b. dress-maker's dummy = dummy n. 5 a.
| 1949 D. G. Smith I capture Castle ii. 13 A dressmaker's dummy of most opulent figure with a wire skirt round her one leg. 1960 D. Holman-Hunt My Grandmothers & I i. 22 Against one wall..stood a dressmaker's dummy. |
Hence ˈdress-ˌmakership; ˈdress-makery, a dress-making establishment.
| 1852 R. S. Surtees Sponge's Sp. Tour v. (1893) 29 In all the elegance of first-rate millinery and dressmakership. 1882 Besant All Sorts viii. 75 Details of a practical nature concerning the conduct of a dress-makery. |