Jane Clarke (milliner)

Jane Clarke (1794–1859) was an English lace merchant and milliner.[1]

She was a well-known milliner of her day and an exhibitor at major exhibitions. While she was fashionable in her own right in her own life time, she was long known in history foremost by her role as the mentor of the famous the court dressmaker Madame Elise and the lace merchant Anthony Blackborne, each of whom took over a part of her business in 1859.[2]

Biography

Jane Clarke was born to a merchant family in London that traded in a wide range of luxury tems. By 1840 she had her own shop at the 154 Regent Street in the West End of London, where she sold lace and silk, textiles often used for dress and furnishing. Her shop, strategically located in a fashionable part of the city, catered to the upper class and became lucrative, making it possible for her to expand and found shops in Manchester and Liverpool.[1]

She expanded her business from luxury trade to included dressmaking, which was a natural development since she sold textile and trimmings often used for dresses, and she was listed as Lace Dealer and Dressmaker’ at 170 Regent Street at the 1851 London census. As a milliner, a title at the time used to describe a designer and maker of women's dresses, she had a staff of fifteen milliners and thirty-one including eight shop and workroom assistants.[1]

In 1859, Jane Clarke retired, and sold her trading business to the lace merchant Anthony Blackborne, and her milliner business to one of her milliner employees, Elise Jaeger (1836–1913).[3] Clarke died later the same year.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Baker, Malcolm, and Brenda Richardson (eds.), A Grand Design: The Art of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London: V&A Publications, 1999.
  2. ↑ Hemingway, J. (2012). Millinery and Old Lace: Miss Jane Clarke of Regent Street. Textile History, 43(2), 200–222. https://doi.org/10.1179/0040496912Z.00000000011
  3. ↑ Hemingway, J. (2012). Millinery and Old Lace: Miss Jane Clarke of Regent Street. Textile History, 43(2), 200–222. https://doi.org/10.1179/0040496912Z.00000000011
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