(1) Someone who makes and sells hats
(2) Someone who makes or mends dresses
(1) It's the sort of city where a burglar, a banker, a taxi-driver, an academician, a modiste , and a pushcart vendor might all fetch up together in a corner banquette at the end of the night.
(2) Her title-page identifies her as ‘formerly a slave, but more recently modiste , and friend to Mrs. Abraham Lincoln,’ thus indicating a certain progression - from chattel, to employee, to friend.
(3) Then find me a competent man of affairs along with a modiste and a personal maid from one of the agencies.
(4) Mocking her endeavors as author and modiste , the parody echoes the language common to nineteenth-century advertisement with the words ‘Publishers and ladies please take notice.’
(5) Of course, I've been with my modiste - this year's hats are so bewitching!
sempstress
dressmaker
needlewoman
seamstress