From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
From mantua + maker, from mantua, a loose gown worn in the 18th century.
mantuamaker (plural mantuamakers)
- A maker of women's clothes, especially dresses
1836, American Anti-Slavery Society, The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 1 of 4[1]:Pity that hyper-fashionable mantuamakers and milliners were not a little quicker at taking hints from some of our Doctors of Divinity.
