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During the late nineteenth century, Ebenezer Butterick and The E. Butterick Company transformed women’s fashion by introducing mass-produced, precut sewing patterns based on a proportional grading system. While these patterns were marketed as accessible and democratic tools for amateur dressmakers, they were based on a rigid sizing framework that codified a vision of bodily “normalcy” centered on corsetry and the proportions of an idealized size “36.”

This talk shares research in progress on the origins