This article explores the way in which fashionable items in a woman's wardrobe became accessible to a mass female market during the nineteenth century thanks largely to the interaction of fashion requirements themselves and developments in pattern drafting and grading, but also supported by contemporary social and cultural change. Using the case of the woman's jacket, it shows how progress in cutting techniques, in measurement, in the 'shape' of fashion, and in the use of the more flexible practices of dressmaking, allowed manufacturers to produce and sell ― in the new department stores and elsewhere ― a cheaper, fashionable yet ready-made tailored garment that appealed to large numbers of women.
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