The business of dressmaking.

DuBois 1912-1964

DuBois

Mrs. Calla DuBois Soukup was "dressmaker to the Minneapolis carriage trade for decades." She and her husband, Anton, arrived in Minneapolis about 1910 and founded DuBois Dressmaking and Tailoring at 2645 Lyndale Avenue South. She and Anton, a tailor, worked together in the shop until his death in 1939. She continued the business at this same address until 1965.

Evening ensemble.

Her obituary in the Minneapolis Star notes, "In her most active years she went to Paris twice a year to get ideas for fashions which she adapted to her own and her customers’ preferences."

One of those customers, Adeline Robinson Morse, was known to her granddaughter as "Black Grandma" because "...she wore black on nearly every occasion… All of her dresses were created by Madame Dubois, all swished around her ankles, and all looked very much the same. .. She was a heavy woman with an enormous bosom. She swept slowly through the rooms of her darkened house in her long black skirts with a giant amethyst brooch swinging at her breast."

Another client was Mary Haskell Hersey, mother of Marie Hersey, one of F. Scott Fitzerald’s best friends. "When Scott and Zelda were first married, Scott objected to Zelda's fluffy Southern style wardrobe. He asked Marie to help Zelda choose clothing more appropriate to New York City (New York Times)."

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