Jacqueline Isabelle de Cleves (Brides)

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Jacqueline Isabelle was an American socialite, who had been a well-known socialite woman of the 19th century. She was a well known breeder of pedigree and also a skilled dressmaker. Her family had been in business for many years and her mother as well as her two sisters all had been exceptionally good at their craft. It was said of Jacqueline that she loved dressing up as she could mix and match and it worked very well for her. It was said that she used her own dolls to make clothes and for her dressmaking skills she borrowed some from the family of Abraham and Sarah Josephine.

It was not long after this fashion for Jacqueline to go into dressmaking but this profession proved very difficult for her. It was not long before she was being patronized by very wealthy men who were buying her work and this only encouraged her more to become involved in this field of dressmaking. In the late evening there would be parties at her house where each guest would be required to bring a piece of their dress which she would make up for them and put them together. These dressmakers garments were of the most costly quality and it was her job to make them just as good as if they had been designed by a designer. It was her dream to own her own business in this field and so she went on to devise her own design but it was not to her liking and so it did not materialize.

Her final years were very hard as she had contracted numerous diseases and her health never fully recovered. When she reached the age of seventy-one, she decided to give up her profession and retired to a country place for the remainder of her days. This was the period in which Jacqueline’s daughter, Antoinette became very close to her. Jacqueline’s daughter became very concerned about the condition of her mother and suggested to her mother that they should look for a professional dressmaker in order to help out the Isabelle in their mother’s business. This lady became an important part of Jacqueline’s life and even purchased a farm for her mother, which led to the start of the Bridal dressmaking business which lasted until Antoinette died at an early age of forty.

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