Madame Eloffe

Madame Eloffe (d. after 1789), was a French fashion merchant or Marchandes de modes. She was a favorite milliner of Queen Marie Antoinette.

Madame Eloffe was one of the four top fashion merchants alongside Rose Bertin, Le Sieur Beaulard and Mademoiselle Alexandre during the reign of Louis XVI. She provided dresses for the ladies-in-waiting in the court of Versailles, and Queen Marie Antoinette was a regular costumer. Eloffe was described as a successful rival to Rose Bertin. She was known to advertise her business to the queen by having a portrait of her in the window of her shop. Her accounts books testify that it was common for noblewomen to order remakes of dresses rather than to order completely new ones, but that the remakes were often more expensive than new ones. The queen often ordered remakes and redecorations of old dresses from her.

Her account books, unlike those of Rose Bertin, have been preserved and are considered to be valuable historical sources, particularly in regard to the wardrobe of Maria Antoinette. Her business with Marie Antoinette was published in the work by Gustave-Armand-Henry, Comte de Reiset, Modes et usages au temps de Marie Antoinette: Livre-journal de Madame Eloffe, 2. vols. (Paris, 1885).

References

Caroline Weber, Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution
Clare Haru Crowston, Fabricating Women: The Seamstresses of Old Regime France, 1675–1791
Carolyn Sargentson, Merchants and luxury markets: the marchands merciers of eighteenth-century Paris, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1996

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