![Photo of Ellen "Nell" Louise Curtis Demorest](/women_pictures/Demorest_Ellen "Nell" Louise Curtis.png)
Ellen "Nell" Louise Curtis Demorest
Personal Information
Born: 1824
Died: 1898
Country of Birth: USA
Nationality: USA
Ethnicity: White
Education
Schuylerville Academy
""Parents, teach your daughters some remunerative business. Select for them as you do for your sons—according to natural or apparent capability." (encyclopedia.com); "
— Ellen "Nell" Louise Curtis Demorest
Professional Life
Field of Study: Fashion
Institution/Corporation: None found
Degrees & Memberships: Member: Sorosis (1868)
Awards & Achievements
Awards: 1876 received top honors in fashion at the Philadelphia Centennial; 1878 Best Fashion Display, Paris Exhibition
Achievements: introduced high fashion to the masses; never patented her dress patterns; received patents (not located) for elevator shaft floor and dress improvements such as the Imperial Dress Elevator, a method of raising a long skirt while walking; widely credited for inventing mass-produced tissue-paper dressmaking patterns but never applied for a patent; developed a cheap hoopskirt and a new line of corsets, cosmetics, and other products; created the "Excelsior Dress Model" drafting system that was a mathematical system to print various sizes onto one pattern; 1845 founded Demorest Sewing Machine Co (later Lycoming Engines & now a division of Textron) to manufacture sewing machines & later aviation engines; 1872 with Susan King established the Women's Tea Company to import tea to be sold by gentlewomen; published Demorest's Monthly under various names from 1860 to 1899
was trained as a milliner & dressmaker
with her husband, William Jennings Demorest, she established a company to sell the patterns, which were adaptations of the latest French fashions, and a quarterly magazine (Mme Demorest's Mirror of Fashions) to promote them in 1860
was inspired to make tissue-paper patterns after seeing her African-American maid cut out a dress pattern from brown paper
her sister Kate helped with the design patterns
also started a monthly magazine, Demorest’s Illustrated Monthly Magazine
was a founding member of Sorosis, the first professional women's club in the United States
often featured the dresses worn by Empress Eugenie in her magazines
1863 designed the wedding trousseau of Lavinia Warren the wife of Tom Thumb
when Jenny Lind toured the US she wore dresses created & sold by the Demorest Emporium
her magazines featured patterns stapled inside them
she hired blacks to work on the same terms as whites long before integration was generally considered acceptable, and minority employees were welcome on equal terms at gala occasions at her Emporium
her publications initiated simplified instructions for creating fashionable looks with products designed to ease the demands on time and money for being well-dressed
1887 sold the pattern business & turned to advocacy for civil rights, abolition, & anti-slavery issues
by 1876 her company & agents were selling approximately 3 million patterns yearly
served as treasurer of the New York Medical College for Women
suffered a stroke in 1895 & became bedridden
1860’s she branched out with a network of shops nationwide called “Madame Demorest’s Magasins de Modes” & in the mid-1870’s she had 300 shops that employed nearly 1,500 sales agents that were mainly women
was known as queen of 19th-century American fashion
she was an ardent abolitionist and women's rights advocate
was board chair of a women's shelter, the Welcome Lodging House for Women and Children