Draper

Draper was originally a term for a retailer or wholesaler of cloth that was mainly for clothing. A draper may additionally operate as a cloth merchant or a haberdasher.

Drapers were an important trade guild during the medieval period, when the sellers of cloth operated out of drapers' shops.¹ However the original meaning of the term has now largely fallen out of use.

In 1724, Jonathan Swift wrote a series of satirical pamphlets in the guise of a draper called the Drapier's Letters.

A number of notable people who have at one time or another worked as drapers include:

• Sir Thomas Adams, 1st Baronet (1586–1667/1668), Lord Mayor of the City of London
• William Barley (1565?–1614), bookseller and publisher
• Norman Birkett
• Margaret Bondfield (1873–1953), Britain's first female cabinet minister who, at the age of 14, began an apprenticeship at a draper's shop in Hove, near Brighton²
• Thomas Burberry, founder of fashion brand "Burberry"
• Eleanor Coade (1733–1821), successful businesswoman with Coade stone, who ran her own business as a linen draper in the City of London³
• John Graunt (1620–1674), founder of the science of demography, became a freeman of the Drapers' Company at the age of 21 and worked in his father's drapery shop until his father died in 1662
• Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
• John Spedan Lewis (1885–1963), founder of the John Lewis Partnership
• William McGregor (1846–1911), chairman of Aston Villa Football Club and founder of the Football League
• Anthony Munday (1560?–1633), playwright
• Hector MacDonald, was a draper's apprentice until at 18 he joined the army.
• Harry S. Truman, haberdasher before he became a Senator, Vice President and President of the United States
• H. G. Wells and his fictional characters Kipps and Mr Polly were draper's assistants⁴
• Edward Whalley, regicide, cousin of Oliver Cromwell
• George Williams, founder of the YMCA⁵
• John Woodward (1665–1728), geologist and physician to King Charles II. At the age of 16 he went to London to be apprenticed to a linen draper.

A draper is now defined as a highly skilled role within the fashion industry. The term is used within a fashion design or costume design studio for people tasked with creating garments or patterns by draping fabric over a dress form; draping uses a human form to physically position the cloth into a desired pattern. This is an alternative method to drafting, when the garment is initially worked out from measurements on paper.

A fashion draper may also be known as a "first hand" because they are often the most skilled creator in the workshop and the "first" to work with the cloth for a garment. However a first hand in a costume studio is often an assistant to the draper. They are responsible for cutting the fabric with the patterns and assisting in costume fittings.