Mary Ann Bell ( fl. 1806 – fl. 1831), was a British

fashion merchant A fashion merchant is a businessperson specialising in the production and the sale of fashion accessories, especially adornments for hairstyles and gowns. The profession emerged in the early eighteenth century and reached its height at the end of t ...

fashion design Fashion design is the Art (skill), art of applying design, aesthetics, clothing construction and natural beauty to clothing and its Fashion accessory, accessories. It is influenced by culture and different trends, and has varied over time and plac ...

er and

fashion journalist Fashion is a form of self-expression and autonomy at a particular period and place and in a specific context, of clothing, footwear, lifestyle, accessories, makeup, hairstyle, and body posture. The term implies a look defined by the fashion in ...

. She was a leading figure in the British fashion industry of her day, particularly during the

Napoleonic era The Napoleonic era is a period in the history of France and Europe. It is generally classified as including the fourth and final stage of the French Revolution, the first being the National Assembly, the second being the Legislative ...

, when Great Britain was in many ways isolated from the French fashion. She had an agent in Paris, who informed her about the latest fashion, which she regularly displayed in her shop in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

twice a week. She was a designer, and the inventor of the Chapeau Bras (1820), a cap which could be folded, it was an essential part of military uniform in the 1700s .She as well as the Bandage Corset (1819), a corset specially designed for support during pregnancy, which was purchased by

Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld , house = , father = Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld , mother = Countess Augusta of Reuss-Ebersdorf , birth_date = , birth_place = Coburg, Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Holy Roman Empire , death_date = , death_pl ...

, giving her the right to refer to herself as 'Corset Maker to her Royal Highness, the Duchess of Kent'.Adburgham, Alison:
Women in Print: Writing Women and Women's Magazines from the Restoration
' She participated as a fashion editor of the

La Belle Assemblée ''La Belle Assemblée'' (in full ''La Belle Assemblée or, Bell's Court and Fashionable Magazine Addressed Particularly to the Ladies'') was a British women's magazine published from 1806 to 1837, founded by John Bell (1745–1831). Publishi ...

as well as the 'World of Fashion and Continental Feuilletons', in which she displayed her own designed models. In 1830, she officially supported the boycott of French fashion, though in practice made use of them in her own shop.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bell Year of birth missing Year of death missing 19th-century English businesspeople British fashion designers British fashion journalists 19th-century English businesswomen British women fashion designers

See also

References