Ladies' dressmakers based in 14 & 16 Bold Street, Liverpool. The building was commissioned by John Cripp in 1860. The business closed down during the early 1970s. For those who could afford it, shopping for clothes in Liverpool in the period between the two World Wars must have been an exciting experience, such was the choice and variety available in Britain's greatest seaport. It was also a period of transition, with gradual change taking place in the 'pecking order' of garment retailers in particular. The most prestigious shops, providing an exclusive made-to-measure service, were still located in Bold Street, known during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as the 'Bond Street of the North'. Chief among these were Cripps, Sons & Co, T&S Bacon and De Jong et Cie who, from as early as the 1860s onwards, had catered for the county gentry and the mercantile elite, known as 'the carriage trade', at the top end of the social scale. Their customers included the wives and daughters of wealthy local shipowners and cottonbrokers.