Late nineteenth-century bodice and skirt made of silk with floral design on a yellow ground. The neckline is trimmed with a draped purple accent. Inside the garment there is a label inscribed with ‘Madame Elise, by special appointment, Dressmaker, to H.R.H the Princess of Wales, Elise, 170 Regent Street’. The Madame Elise label was founded by Elizabeth Marie Louise Jaeger (1836-1913), the daughter of a banker from Frankfurt, Germany. In the 1851 London census she was recorded at 170 Regent Street, in Mayfair, as a milliner working for Jane Clarke, a dressmaker and lace seller. For most of the nineteenth century, the term ‘milliner’ was used to describe a designer and maker of women’s dresses, rather than referring to a hatmaker. Elizabeth, who usually shortened her name to Elise, married Frederick Wootton Isaacson (1836-1898) on January 10th, 1857. Frederick was born in London and was a buyer and businessperson who got his start as a warehouse worker for a book merchant.

By 1859 Jane Clarke’s health was failing and she transferred the business still located on Regent Street to Elise and Frederick. The shop became well known, gaining an appointment from the Princess of Wales Alexandra of Denmark, wife to King Edward VII. This appointment can be seen featured prominently on Elise labels. The business expanded, a warehouse and workroom opening under the Isaacson name at 62 & 63 King Street near St. James’s Square. Elise went on to write books and magazine articles about fashionable dress and textile craft, work she would continue after she no longer owned the shop. In 1884, the business was sold to Charles Chatteris (1848-1903), who continued to operate under the Madame Elise name until 1887 when he was required to change the name to Madame Elise and Company. Chatteris was born in London where he married Edith Coraline Byrne. He worked as an accountant, eventually opening an accounting firm called Chatteris, Nichols, and Chatteris. He worked as an accountant until 1884 when he purchased the dressmaking business from Elise and Frederick. The business was incorporated as a Ltd in 1890. Chatteris passed away in 1903 and the business was subsequently dissolved, after which no further use of the Madame Elise name is known. This bodice and skirt correspond with another bodice in the V&A collection (CIRC.229-1926). The three items would have been made as a set as evidenced by the matching fabric. In the nineteenth century it was customary practice for a skirt to come with both a day and evening bodice. There is a lace cap (T.286-1977) in the collection that has a Madame Elise and Co label as well. Due to the presence of ‘company’ on the label it is thought that all of these items were made after Chatteris changed the business name in 1887.