Among the first women's ready-to-wear garments, dating to the early nineteenth century, were coats, cloaks, and mantles, which did not rely on close fit. By the mid-nineteenth century, European and American ready-made manufacturers were seeking Paris cachet. The tradition of Paris fashion sold abroad through models was easily adapted to the developing ready-to-wear trade. The emergence and success of this industry was recognized in the French jury report for the Exposition Universelle of 1855. With true Gallic pride in their fashion superiority, the French jury claimed, "Women's ready-to-wear is done everywhere today,...but everywhere they work after Parisian designs or models, and foreign manufacturers know very well we have no interest in their sending us their products, more or less happily copied from ours."(26) As the early twentieth century progressed, concerns like the Harry Angelo Company, Maginnis &Thomas Importers, and H. J. Gross Company, Inc., began to offer more ready-to-wear, capitalizing on their Parisian connections. Some companies, like Harry Angelo, grew to specialize in the import of French ready-made goods, while others, like Maginnis & Thomas, gradually developed into manufacturers and made and sold copies of French models. Within the French fashion establishment, some of the young designers - among them Jean Patou and Lucien Lelong - catered to this growing and important aspect of their trade and helped to usher in the new era of couture after World War I. Subordinating the art of dressmaking to the business of fashion, Patou took advantage of the increasing use of advertising to market his gowns; he offered them at low prices; and he organized his shop like an assembly line. Lelong did the same. He was interested in the scientific management of his business and discouraged the usual adjustments and alterations to his models requested by clients, so that his shop could maintain peak efficiency.(27) Lelong and especially Patou were popular with the Seventh Avenue New York manufacturers. The Frenchmen's economical use of fabric and their attempts to streamline the manufacturing process were goals Americans could appreciate.

Oddly enough, Anna's clients occasionally requested that ready-made garments be copied for them. There are probably a number of reasons for this. Many of Anna's older clients would have been accustomed to having more creative input into the choice of fabric, trim, cut, and fit. If not satisfied with a ready-made's fabric or sleeve shape, the customer could easily have Anna duplicate the overall style while adjusting the particulars to the individual. The Tirocchi "merchandise received and returned" ledgers record that on September 2, 1927, Anna ordered from Maginnis &Thomas a Jean Patou transparent black velvet evening dress trimmed with a rhinestone buckle. The ledger notes that the gown was copied for Mrs. William Hoffman in the original transparent black velvet, a shiny thin fabric made of rayon,(28) and for Mrs. A. Burns Smythe in a more traditional black silk velvet. A few days earlier, on August 31, Anna had received a black georgette dress trimmed with velvet to be worn with a peach-colored vestee with rhinestone buttons from A. Traina. Before the dress was sold to Mrs. H. S. Lampher, it was copied in blue for Mrs. Charles MacKinney.(29)