Dressmaker; The Oxford English Dictionary first records dressmaker in 1803. Throughout the nineteenth century and until the rise of ready-to-wear, most women who did not make their own clothes at home employed a local dressmaker, who copied or adapted the latest clothing ideas from Paris based on printed illustrations called fashion plates.

Today, custom dressmakers fill a niche between haute couture and ready-to-wear, and are often employed for one-of-a-kind special occasion dresses, such as wedding gowns and prom dresses.

Couture or Haute Couture; (French for "high sewing" or "high dressmaking"; refers to the creation of exclusive custom-fitted fashions. Today these terms are use loosely but years ago it only pertained to the best dressmakers on earth. Today couture donotes fine and presision detail in dressmaking.

Modiste; a maker of fashionable clothing and accessories, with the implication that the articles made reflect the current Paris modes.

Sewing Professional; the most general term for those who make their living by sewing, teaching, writing about sewing, or retailing sewing supplies. She or he may work out of her home, a studio, or retail shop, and may work part-time or full-time. She or he may be any or all or the following sub-specialities:

A Custom Clothier makes custom garments one at a time, to order, to meet an individual customer's needs and preferences.

A Custom Dressmaker specializes in women's custom apparel, including day dresses, career wear, suits, evening or bridal wear, sportswear, or lingerie.

A Tailor makes custom jackets and the skirts or trousers that go with them, for men or women.

An Alterations Specialist, or Alterationist adjusts the fit of completed garments, usually ready-to-wear, or restyles them. Note that while all tailors can do alterations, by no means can all alterationists do tailoring.

Designers think up combinations of line, proportion, color, and texture for intended garments. They may have no sewing or pattern making skills whatsoever, and may only sketch or conceptualize garments.

Patternmakers flat draft the shapes and sizes of the numerous pieces of a garment by hand using paper and measuring tools or by computer using specialised software, or by draping muslin on a dress form. The resulting pattern pieces must comprise the intended design of the garment and they must fit the intended wearer.

A Wardrobe Consultant or Fashion Advisor recommends styles and colors that are flattering for a client.

A Seamstress is someone who sews seams, or in other words, a machine operator in a factory who may not have the skills to make garments from scratch or to fit them on a real body. This term is not a synonym for dressmaker.

Drapery refers to cloth or textiles (Old French drap, from Late Latin drappus) used for decorative purposes or to the trade of selling cloth.

The word cloth is sometimes used as a generic term for "fabric" or "Textile".

A textile (or fabric) is a flexible material comprised of a network of natural or artificial fibers often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by spinning raw wool fibers, linen, cotton, or other material on a spinning wheel to produce long strands known as yarn. Textiles are formed by weaving, knitting, crocheting, knotting, or pressing fibers together (felt).