The importance of the labelling of clothes in the late nineteenth century is often associated with couturiers. Their use of labels was aimed at branding both their fashion houses as well as...Show moreThe importance of the labelling of clothes in the late nineteenth century is often associated with couturiers. Their use of labels was aimed at branding both their fashion houses as well as themselves as artist designers. Little attention has been paid to the labelling practices of nineteenth-century dressmakers, although it is known to have been widely applied. Just as few women have been identified while the dressmaking trades were a female dominated industry. For the Netherlands in particular, it is interesting to examine dressmakers and their labelling practices as the lack of Dutch couturiers made Dutch dressmakers the most important figures in the Dutch dressmaking trades of the nineteenth century. This thesis aims to identify Dutch dressmakers through their labels while questioning to what extent late nineteenth-century Dutch dressmakers used their labels for branding their fashion houses and how this related to the Western European fashion practice. The Dutch labelling and dressmaking practices are contextualised and compared with their Western European counterparts through literature analysis and stylistic object-based analysis of labels found in five Dutch museums and seven museums from across Western Europe. The exceptionality of these labelling practices in a female dominated industry is explored as a notion of female agency through the concepts of feminisation, female individualisation and authorship. In addition, this thesis examines how the commercial significance of a dressmaker’s name as a brand name manifested itself in a dressmaker's labels and advertisements. This research results in fourteen biographies of Dutch dressmakers whose labels, together with the Western European labels, can be divided in three stylistic categories. It shows that the strength of the label as a branding tool laid in the continuous use of the same design, just like a signature. This thesis argues that the strongest example of female agency lies in the dressmaker’s name on the label which speaks of an awareness of her own originality and individuality, while at the same time publicly claiming her authorship.Show less