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Dressmaking businesses and factoriesNumerous Japanese Canadian dressmaking businesses and factories were located in the Vancouver area from the 1920s and 1930s until 1942. With few occupations open to Japanese Canadian women, dressmaking was a popular choice. In the mid-1930s, one third of urban second-generation Japanese Canadian women who were surveyed gave dressmaking as their occupation, and there were also dressmakers in rural areas of British Columbia as well.
In the Vancouver area, among the dressmakers and dressmaking shops which numbered close to ninety by the 1930s, were many shops in the Powell Street district as well as further from the urban centre, such as Kimiko and Fumiko Nasu's shop on Smythe Street, the Tanizawa shop in Kitsilano, Ayako and Shizue Kohara's shop on Alma Street, Sayoko Hattori's shop on Dunbar Street, Masa Enjo's shop on Main Street, and Yayoi Negishi's shop on Commercial Drive.
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Fumiko (left) and Kimiko Saito in front of their dressmaking shop at 818 Smythe Street1940
Vancouver, BC
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Employment demographics of second generation Japanese in British Columbia1935
Vancouver, BC
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Table 8 Continued, Present Occupations of the 2nd Generation in B.C.1935
Vancouver, BC
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Natsu Saito with her daughter Kimiko Saito, in front of Saito Tailor Shop at 397 Powell Street1935
Vancouver, BC
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Advertisement for S. Tanaka's Bonnie Lass Cleaners, 'modern dressmakers,' at 4243 Dunbar Street1930
Vancouver, BC
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Kohei Saito at the entrance to his Tailor Shop at 397 Powell Street1930
Vancouver, BC
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A pair of scissors and tweezers used by Kohei Saito at his tailor shop on Powell Street1930
Vancouver, BC
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Double breasted men's wool serge top coat with Matsumiya and Nose label1940
Vancouver, BC
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Detail of double breasted men's wool serge top coat with Matsumiya and Nose label1940
Vancouver, BC
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A wooden clothes hanger from the men's furnishings store Matsumiya and Nose at 229 Powell Street1930
Vancouver, BC
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Two metal ring thimbles used by Kimiko Saito1940
Vancouver, BC
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Wedding portrait of Jim Hori and Margaret Saito10 December 1941
Vancouver, BC
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Portrait of Fumiko Saito, bridesmaid for her sister Margaret10 December 1941
Vancouver, BC
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