Marchande de modes

Marchande de modes was a French Guild organisation for women fashion merchants or milliners, normally meaning ornaments for headdresses, hats and dresses, within the city of Paris, active from August 1776 until 1791. It played a dominating role within the commercial life and fashion industry of France during the last decades prior to the French Revolution. One of the most famous members was Rose Bertin.

A fashion merchant was 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 the same century. The women and occasional men who practised as fashion merchants played a central role in the diffusion of styles in this period.

The profession was defined by being formalized in a guild with the name Marchandes de modes (English: "Fashion Merchant") between 1776 and 1791. It was the 4th guild in Paris open for women after the Maîtresses marchandes lingères, the Maîtresses couturières and the Maîtresses bouquetières, and was abolished with the abolition of the guild system in 1791.