The Changing Face of Fashion in Montreal, 1885-1905: New Markets, Improved Taste and the Move to Mass Production

For most of the nineteenth century, Montreal’s elite followed fashionable trends set by Parisian designers by purchasing their clothing while traveling abroad or patronizing exclusive dressmakers who would copy the latest elegantly engraved fashion plates appearing in international ladies journals. By the end of the century, the distinctions between the well-dressed Montrealer and her less affluent fellow citizens began to blur as the rising retail dry goods sector, encouraged by the Conservative government’s National Policy, offered an increasingly varied and up-to-date selection of reasonably priced fashionable dress goods, trims, millinery and accessories both locally and Canada-wide through mail order catalogues. As women entered the workforce and engaged in active sports, collective taste adjusted to the introduction of ready-made tailored suits, blouses, skirts and shirtwaists. The elite distanced themselves from the middle-classes by still patronizing European couturiers.

Master's Thesis

Concordia University

Montreal

1993

vi-148p.

en