Nell Donnelly Reed

At 102 years old, Nell Donnelly Reed physical status not available right now. We will update Nell Donnelly Reed's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

Nell had always insisted on looking nicely dressed all the time, even whilst working at home, for which many women wore cheaply made, unflattering 69-cent dresses. The New York Times reported that she said she wanted to "make women look pretty when they are washing dishes." Nell's ruffled dresses and aprons in good-quality, hard-wearing fabrics were made for herself and her family, but were admired by her friends and neighbours, who asked if she would make dresses for them too. In 1916 she started working commercially, selling her first designs through a large local department store, the Gregory B. Peck Dry Goods Company in Kansas City, Missouri. The original order of 216 dresses, run up by two neighbors in the Donnelly's attic on newly purchased used sewing machines, rapidly sold out. This was despite the fact that at a dollar each, they were more expensive than the average housedresses.

In 1919, Nell and Paul Donnelly established the Donnelly Garment Company. The company rapidly grew through the 1920s, becoming known for its focus on good fit and durability combined with attractive designs. Each design was prototyped in every size it would be made in to ensure that the fit was correct and that purchasers would not be forced to alter them, with unsuccessful designs either reworked or not produced. As Nell was a size 16, she wanted her designs to look stylish and flattering on women of a wide range of sizes. In 1927, Kansas City voted Nell its most illustrious businesswoman for her success in turning them into a successful center for ready-to-wear production.

The company remained successful through the Great Depression. By 1931 sales figure were at the 3.5 million dollar mark, and it had 1,000-plus employees. In 1932, Nell divorced Paul Donnelly and removed him from the company becoming its sole shareholder. Although she remarried the following year, her new husband played no part in her business. Paul Donnelly committed suicide in a sanitarium in Connecticut a couple of years later in 1934. He was posthumously diagnosed as a manic-depressive.

Nell focused on her employees' welfare, providing life insurance and medical fee support, a pension plan, an on-site cafeteria and medical care, and even funded and supported employees who wished to study evening courses at the local college. In addition to this, there was a scholarship fund for her employees' children. Despite pressure from the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union through the 1930s and 1940s to unionize the Donnelly Garment Company, this was resisted by her employees and the company did not join the ILGWU until 1968. By 1953 the Donnelly Garment Company was the largest manufacturer of women's clothing worldwide, having expanded from housedresses to making a wider range of garments.

She retired from the company in 1956, after which it rebranded itself as Nelly Don Inc and went public in 1958. It was bankrupted by a subsequent owner with no relation to her family in 1978.

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