dressmakers, NO not prostitutes!!

[stormtroop]

It is just that the life of working class women was so horrendous in the past and we have alot to thank our grandmothers for, that to misrepresent them or  their work ,is however long gone they are  an injustice . I would rather give them the benefit of the doubt , and give them the dignity of privacy if they did have to resort to less salubrious practices of employment.
I know that those in the victorian  clothing trade were known as the "white slaves of england" at the time. 

[Ruskie]

I got upset because my family were skilled working class and the dressmaker concerned had been deaf since the age of 2 years of age, her family did not resort to just putting her in a home or the workhouse, they stuck by her!, hence my outrage,

This sounds very raw. Did someone directly accuse your ancestor of being a prostitute?

Being deaf would not have been any hindrance to her dressmaking abilities - she was obviously earning a wage and hence was a valuable contributing member of the family.

I wouldn't give the occupation "dressmaker" a second thought if I were you - no point worrying about a term such as this that was used so long ago.  I really can't see anyone today making snide remarks when you tell them that an ancestor was a dressmaker in the 1851 census. 

[Mike in Cumbria]

And now I'm getting banner adverts for house.com fine dresses.

The joys of targetted advertising. At least they should start replacing the adverts for "mental patient costumes" that have been appearing since I investigated last week's news story.

[Treetotal]

I wouldn't pay too much attention to the label either....My Grandmother was a 3rd generation Dressmaker and sewed habits for the nuns...she also told tales of how her Mother taught her to sew from the age of 6 and she sewed by candlelight. I think the amount of children the females in my line all had would keep them far too busy to have the time to entertain "Gentlemen"
But...it did go on and at least they earned a living and didn't send their children out begging and stealing...times were hard when the head of the house became sick with no money for treatment...or worse...died young leaving the Mother with many mouths to feed....The alternative would have been the workhouse and many of us...ilke it or not... wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for the "Dressmakers" of old.
Carol

[Viktoria]

 To quote someone, prostitutes are only selling what is their own!

 That made a big impression on me and it is of course true.
 It is almost always through dire need that a woman, specially in  the days before reliable contraception,would become a prostitute.
 A  woman married to a violent loathesome man, with no way out of the marriage , and having to
 let him have his conjugal rights or else!--- and  there was no love anymore in the marriage-was sadly  put almost in the same situation as a  street girl.
The main differences being she dd not get paid and she had no choice!!!
 The stories my mum told me of poor women in her neighbourhood when she was a girl--- women beaten up regularly every pay day when the husband had boozed away most of his wages. Then he`d drag her home  from the pub where she had been waiting ,trying to get some housekeeping before he spent it all.
Men who could drink and leave their children hungry .
 Any woman who turned to prostitution to feed her kids deserved a medal.
 Whether she ran up a few frocks or not.
                                                          Viktoria.
...

[bykerlads]

Yes, most dressmakers would have been exactly that.
There must have been an enormous number of them, both in a workshop/factory-type setting and working independently at home, because clothing had to  be made and repaired/re-modelled for customers of all classes.
There continued to be many dressmakers/seamstresses in business in small towns right up to the mid 20thC.My mum, though a textile mender by trade was also a skilled dressmaker and used to earn a bit of pin-money doing alterations and making clothes for neighbours.
( the Martyr Village of Oradour in Limousin,France shows just what small businesses used to operate in pre-war towns.Quite a number of "couturieres" are, tragically, represented there).

[majm]

I am not sure where the idea that all dressmakers were prostitutes came from but I bitterly disagree!, my family came from the North East and in small areas where everyone knows each other this would not be possible, in London where people are anonymous , well you have your own morality!.
NOT in my family!!.dearie.

Something is amiss with your understanding of the circumstances whereby a dressmaker was also a prostitute.   The two occupations are not mutually exclusive of each other......     

I grew up in a small rural community, thousands and thousands of miles from London.  There were ladies of the night in that small rural community, just as surely as there were ladies of the night in the small area where you were raised.     

I attended primary school (an all girls school) with a lass whose mum was one of those ladies of the night.   My school friend's father's name likely is NOT on her birth cert, but my school friend certainly knew which local funded her school uniforms, school excursions, and bought books for our school library and presented awards at end of year functions.   

This was of course post WWII, rural New South Wales.   My school friend's mum was a lovely lady, and was a fine seamstress, for my school friend's clothes were all delicately handmade and the envy of the entire girls school.   Our end of year Christmas plays were always in costumes that that lady of the night prepared.   

Cheers,  JM