theclothingproject-blog:Collection’s Highlight: Dress Label This gown is one of our museum’s favori
theclothingproject-blog:Collection’s Highlight: Dress Label This gown is one of our museum’s favorite pieces. We claim something pretty interesting about this dress, and I would love to see what all of you fashion folks think about this claim. We claim that this dress is the “earliest known gown to bear a dressmaker’s stamp in either America or Europe.” Now I ask the internet, can you find an earlier example? We would love to see it, and would love to be proven right or wrong. The dressmakers label reads: “ Warnock, Fashionable Milliner and dressmaker 85 Cedar St. New York.” Here is what we know about the dressmaker, “Jane Warnock (1813-1850+), milliner, appears in New York City gazetteers from 1831 until 1841, but it is likely she worked with James and/or William Warnock, milliners and dry goods merchants at 95 William Street, before and after her independent listing. Jane Warnock occupied 85 Cedar Street from 1837 until 1839, exactly when this dress was created.” Wedding Dress, ca. 1835-1837, Warnock, Fashionable Milliner, Silk, L: 50 in.The Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, New York, Gift of Mrs. Reuben B. Crispell, N0023.1962(01). Top photograph by Richard Walker. -- source link