Pioneer Dressmakers
Women’s Plus Size Clothing Was Being Made By Lena Bryant 100 Years Ago
Lane Bryant is a name that rolls off the top of everyone’s lips when women’s plus size clothing is mentioned. This very popular label dates back to the early 1900′s when a dressmaker named Lena Bryant took out a loan to start up a business making women’s clothing. The misspelling of “Lena” on the business application drawn up by the Oriental Bank officer is the reason why the name Lane Bryant is known today instead of the true name being Lena Bryant. Lena’s first husband past away soon after the birth of their son and her first job as a seamstress was where she picked up the necessary skills for her chosen trade as a dressmaker.
Lena’s humble beginnings were in a rented storefront on Fifth Avenue that included an area at the back that she lived in with her son. Lena started to make clothing for expectant mothers and babies after taking on her customers request. She designed maternity dresses that were comfortable and suitable for ladies to wear out and about. This clothing line was the first known commercially manufactured clothing of it’s kind and quickly became the most popular item in her store. Lena married in 1909 to Albert and had three children together. Albert was an engineer and very business orientated and soon oversaw the accounting and promotion side of the business. By 1910 sales had sky rocketed to an annual turnover of $50,000.
Lena wanted to promote her clothing line outside of her local area and struggled with the printing companies to advertise her line as it was not proper to mention or talk about women expecting a child, maternity or the word pregnant in the media in those days. It took 12 month before Albert convinced the New York Herald to run a Lane Bryant advertisement in their paper. Once the advertisement was published Lena’s shop had a flood of customers and she sold out her entire stock.
Lena and Albert carried out customer research and researched thousands of other women’s statistics leading Lena on her way to start designing women’s plus size clothing for all the different shapes and sizes of women. The new women’s plus size clothing line exceeded all their expectations and grew into a $5million dollar company by 1923. The company was incorporated in 1914 with stores opening in Chicargo, Detroit and Brooklyn. Lane Bryant is the largest plus-size retailer in the United States with 700 retail stores and the picture below is taken from Lane Bryants collection of women’s plus size tops sold from their web site for customers to shop online for women’s plus size clothing that includes plus size tops, plus size pants, plus size dresses, plus size jeans, plus size intimates, plus size underwear, plus size shapwear, plus size evening wear and fashion accessories.
Lena Bryant past away in 1951 and will be remembered as a pioneer in human relations and be an inspiration to all women today, not only for her contributions to the plus size clothing industry but for her caring and compassionate nature. Lane Bryant was one of the first companies to offer employee’s incentives like profit sharing, insurances, pension and medical plans. Lena also donated to many charities including the Red Cross to help victims that were affected in the 1947 fires in Texas. Lena Bryant was no doubt a very intelligent lady that every woman admires for her strength,determination and dedication to fulfil the clothing needs of women, her vision became a reality and her endless work and her commitment has cemented her place in the history of women plus size clothing. The Lane Bryant legacy lives on through Lena’s and Albert’s grandsons and Lena’s great grandsons.
About the Author
Hi there
I enjoy reading and writing about a variety of subjects, at this point in time my writing has centred around my passion for shopping plus size clothing and fashion and the issues relating to women of plus size. Myself and many like me we would all like to see a positive change in the future in the way our society presently perceives the average womans ‘body image” and size. Shop at plussize4you to find your style and check out the shopping options for plus sizes.
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