S. T. Taylor Company, New York, 1848 - 1925

Founded in 1848 by Samuel Thomas Taylor (1808–1877), a Virginia publisher, businessman, and influential promoter of women’s fashion, the enterprise helped bring European styles and ideas to American readers. Taylor published a wide range of journals, magazines, and catalogs, and translated several widely popular French- and German-language fashion publications into English for American readers. By adapting these publications, he made international fashion trends, commentary, and commercial information more accessible to a growing American readership. Taylor also developed and promoted a proportional pattern-drafting system that could be used to draft women’s garment patterns from a set of body measurements. Rather than relying solely on fixed-size paper patterns, dressmakers could use the system’s graduated proportions and drafting instructions to create patterns suited to an individual figure. This approach helped make systematic garment construction more practical and repeatable for professional dressmakers and home sewers alike.

 

S. T. Taylor Garment Drafting System:

  • 1871, A System for Cutting Ladies’ Garments.
  • 1873, A System for Cutting Ladies’ Garments.
  • 1875, A System for Cutting Ladies’ Garments. S. T. Taylor and Sarah E. Taylor.
  • 1877, A System for Cutting Ladies’ Garments. S. T. Taylor and Sarah E. Taylor.
  • 1879, A System for Cutting Ladies’ Garments, Revised Edition. S. T. Taylor and Sarah E. Taylor.
  • 1882, New Edition, A System for Cutting Ladies’ Garments.
  • 1883, Revised Edition, A System for Cutting Ladies’ Garments.
  • 1890, Instruction Book with Diagrams of S. T. Taylor's System of Cutting Ladies’ Garments
  • 1894, Instruction Book with Diagrams of S. T. Taylor's System of Cutting Ladies’ Garments
  • 1896, S. T. Taylor’s System of Dress Cutting
  • 1902, Instruction Book with Diagrams for S. T. Taylor's System of Cutting Ladies’ Garments
  • 1911, Instruction Book with Diagrams for S. T. Taylor's System of Cutting Ladies’ Garments
  • 1913, Instruction Book with Diagrams for S. T. Taylor's System of Cutting Ladies’ Garments
  • Diagrams of New Skirts with Detailed Directions for Drafting.
  • 1915, Instruction Book with Diagrams for S. T. Taylor's System of Cutting Ladies’ Garments
  • 1919, Instruction Book with Diagrams for S. T. Taylor's System of Cutting Ladies’ Garments

Publications: Le Bon Ton, La Mode Elegante, Revue de la Mode