Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2021 March 7

= March 7 =

Animated maps of the course of the Iraq War (2003-2011)
Are there any animated maps of the course of the Iraq War (2003-2011)? I've previously seen at least one animated map of the course of the Iraqi Civil War (2014-2017), but not of the course of the earlier Iraq War. Futurist110 (talk) 06:30, 7 March 2021 (UTC)

Index of periodical articles?
Is there an index for periodical articles? As WorldCat is for books. Envisioning for example a database that lists every magazine or journal article including the title of the article, work, author, issue and date, and page(s) number. -- Green  C  19:40, 7 March 2021 (UTC)
 * Perhaps Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature. RudolfRed (talk) 21:25, 7 March 2021 (UTC)

The most succesful Dressmaker in Victorian London
Who was the most successful/fashionable dressmaker in London during the early Victorian era (1840s-1850s)? I'm not thinking about Charles Frederick Worth, but of those dressmakers actually living in London. There are information about Victorian dressmakers in general online, but I haven't found an example of anyone truly successful, and while I realize most dressmakers did'nt become rich, there must have been at least one belonging to the very elite, with clients among the aristocracy? The London equivalent to Madame Palmyre in Paris? Thank you.--Aciram (talk) 22:06, 7 March 2021 (UTC)


 * John Redfern was the only name I found from those decades. Alansplodge (talk) 00:14, 8 March 2021 (UTC)
 * That seem to be a little late; while he started is business in the 1850s, it appears he did not become the elite of his trade before the 1880s. Thank you for your effort though - but it is the early Victorian age I'm looking for. Surely there must have been at least one in the 1840s/1850s? Or did they all buy their dresses from Paris? --Aciram (talk) 13:00, 8 March 2021 (UTC)
 * Looking at our articles, it seems that Worth was the first of his kind:
 * "Revolutionizing how dressmaking had been previously perceived, Worth made it so the dressmaker became the artist of garnishment: a fashion designer" (from Haute couture).
 * "Where previously the dressmaker (invariably female) would visit the client's home for a one-to-one consultation, with the exception of Empress Eugénie clients generally attended Worth's salon in rue de la Paix for a consultation and it also became a social meeting point for society figures" (from Charles Frederick Worth).
 * "Fashion design is generally considered to have started in the 19th century with Charles Frederick Worth who was the first designer to have his label sewn into the garments that he created. Before the former draper set up his maison couture (fashion house) in Paris, clothing design and creation was handled by largely anonymous seamstresses, and high fashion descended from that worn at royal courts" (from Fashion design).
 * Alansplodge (talk) 17:43, 8 March 2021 (UTC)

Aciram -- in the 1840s, I would assume that high-end clothing was still sold under the traditional model of discreet exclusivity, rather than modern publicity-seeking, so that famous-name "designers" in the modern sense didn't yet exist. Fashion plates were published, and a few people became famous/notorious due to a royal connection or similar (see Rose Bertin who dressed Marie Antoinette), but the whole business model was different than in the 20th century... AnonMoos (talk) 23:48, 8 March 2021 (UTC)


 * Perhaps I phrased myself wrong, but if I was not actually asking for "designers", but for "dressmakers": that is, for professionals within the dressmaking business, even if they did not design the clothes themselwes. Judging from the article History of fashion design, there were indeed famous dressmakers before Worth. I am looking for just those "discreet exclusivity" non-designer-seamstresses you are talking about: they may not have been designers, but they were succesful businesspeople, which is my interest here. There are several examples from France, such as Madame Palmyre and Madame Victorine, but none from London? I have read so much about the poor Victorian seamstresses working under terrible condititions, but surely there must have been some elite London seamstress who actually became rich and fashionable? It was actually the time period just prior to the rise of the "modern fashion design industry" I was looking for...--Aciram (talk) 02:37, 9 March 2021 (UTC)


 * There's something on the Royal Collection Trust website . 95.150.9.67 (talk) 15:11, 9 March 2021 (UTC)
 * Thank you very much, Mary Bettans and Elizabeth Johnston (dressmaker) ‎were indeed the kind of "fashionable non-designer-dressmakers" I was looking for! Their articles should have year of life and death, as well as some estimation for how long their careers lasted.--Aciram (talk) 20:22, 10 March 2021 (UTC)