Dress by Madame Clapham, Hull, c.1894
A member of the Davis family of Kirkella wore this stylish outfit. The family had a shop in Hull. They must have been rich to be able to afford clothes from Madame Clapham, Hull's best dressmaker. Each part of this dress would have been made separately at Madame Clapham's workshop. There were different rooms for making skirts, bodices and sleeves. Each worker was based in one of these rooms, so she could perfect her skills in a particular area. Emily Clapham opened her dressmaking salon in Kingston Square, Hull, in 1887. By the 1890s she was widely regarded as the finest dressmaker in Hull. The salon attracted an international clientele of rich and stylish ladies. Madame Clapham ran the salon until her death in 1952, when her niece Emily Wall took over until 1967. Emily Clapham was born Emily MacVitie in Cheltenham in 1856. She left school at an early age to serve a dressmaking apprenticeship in Scarborough. At first her job was to pick up pins from the floor. She progressed to gain a thorough training in all aspects of dressmaking. It was clear from the start that Emily was very talented. She had an eye for fashion and colour combined with sound business sense. The skill of Madame Clapham was to select aspects of the latest fashions to create her own designs. Each season she bought a selection of sample gowns from the leading fashion houses of London and Paris. She designed her own creations using bodices, skirts and sleeves from different dresses. She had a talent for selecting the right colour, cut and trimmings to suit her client. Workers at Madame Clapham did all the sewing. Their fine needlework gained her an international reputation as a dressmaker. In contrast to the luxurious salon and fitting rooms, the workrooms were cold and bare. Madame Clapham was a strict employer with high standards, and the pay for workroom girls was low. However, they took pride in their work and received good training.
