a.
1. Made by a tailor; esp. said of women’s garments of a heavier type, close-fitting, and plain in style, properly when made by a tailor (as distinguished from a dressmaker); hence ellipt. as sb.
1873. Punch, 20 Sept., 112/1. I shuddered to behold these words, ‘Tailor-made costumes for ladies.’
1882. Miss Braddon, Mt. Royal, II. x. 221. Gowns of dark brown serge which simulated the masculine simplicity of tailor-made garments.
1892. Daily News, 29 March, 2/4. Braid is the favourite trimming for tailor-mades, now that fur is almost out of season.
1906. Daily Chron., 1 Sept., 4/7. If ‘tailor-made’ means anything, it means … distinct from dressmaker-made on the one hand and factory-made on the other.
2. a. fig. Made such by the tailor, i.e., by one’s dress. b. transf. Dressed in tailor-made garments.
1832. Carlyle, in Fraser’s Mag. V. 386/1. If such worship for real God-made superiors showed itself also as worship for apparent Tailor-made superiors.
1896. Westm. Gaz., 1 May, 8/2. Some severely tailor-made ladies were waiting in the entrance-hall.
1904. Daily Chron., 28 May, 8/1. The ‘tailor-made girl,’ like the ‘frilly girl,’ has her opportunities upon the river.
Hence Tailor-madeness; so Tailor-make.
1898. Daily News, 22 Jan., 6/5. Almost all the gowns of tailor-make were turned back in front with white, red, or cream-colour.
1900. Mrs. Banks, in 19th Cent., XLVIII. 790. A perfectly fitting gown, elegantly ‘smooth,’ though plain in its tailor-made-ness.
