Jane Clarke (milliner)

Jane Clarke (1794–1859) was an English lace merchant and milliner.

She was a well-known milliner of her day and an exhibitor at major exhibitions. While she was fashionable in her own right in her own life time, she was long known in history foremost by her role as the mentor of the famous the court dressmaker Madame Elise and the lace merchant Anthony Blackborne, each of whom took over a part of her business in 1859.

Biography

Jane Clarke was born to a merchant family in London that traded in a wide range of luxury tems. By 1840 she had her own shop at the 154 Regent Street in the West End of London, where she sold lace and silk, textiles often used for dress and furnishing. Her shop, strategically located in a fashionable part of the city, catered to the upper class and became lucrative, making it possible for her to expand and found shops in Manchester and Liverpool. Clarke died later the same year.