The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-07-25
HOOPSKIRTS AND BUSTLES.
The Kinds Worn in Different Cities-The Pc
culiar Philadelphia Bustle.

HOOPShIRTS AND
The Kinds Worn in Different Cities-The Pc
culiar Philadelphia Bustle.
New York Sun.
Scores of busy girls sat before long rows of
sewing machines in a big building on Walker
street swiftly stitching upon strips of broad
white tape. Mounds of the tape were heaped
before each machine, and were quickly
changed by the deft manipulation of the workers
into single Wristbands, with broad ribbons
of tape depending from them like streamers.
Younger girls gathered the sewed tapes up into
cluster Of girls who sat before rows of wooden
frames that looked like big truncated cones.
These girls fitted the Wristbands snuely over the
top OF the frames. and in an instant were deftly
grading strips of linen covered wire through the
tape streamers that hung loose from the waist
bands. They worked with surprising swiftness,
and chatted pleasantly in low tones.
Here" said Manufacturer Malcolm Smith.
"you can view at a glance the interesting details
of an industry that keeps an army of girls busy
eight months III the year, and which just now
reaches its greatest rush: These girls are making
hOopskirts and bustles."
He pointed to a curly-headed blonde who sat
before one of the wooden frames nimbly working
with tweezers and strips of wire.
Watch her" he said. land see how simple it
is TO make a hoopskirt.'
There were six treamers of tape attached to
the waistband that the girl had fitted on the
ANA@N' A~H|h NINSAoN b1N wa ~ AlNOAS
loops or pockets cut in it and extending in a row
from top to bottom. The girl ran strips of wire
through the pockets of the six streamers as
quick as wink and fastened them to each pocket
with little brass clasps by q deft twist of a pair
of steel tweezers. In just eight minutes the
whole twenty five rows of wire were in place,
and the girl lifted a complete hoopskirt
of the ordinary style from the frame.
. course, all hoOpskirts are not made SO
quickly. That one is the simplest and cheapest
made, and the workers can average five dozen of
them a day right along. When it comes to
making a skirt with a bustle-and a skirt with a
hustle IS the correct thing, you kuow-it is
slower and more elaborate work. The wires are
sewed in place In each pocket instead of being
fastened with clasps of metal, and care has to
be exercised in shaping the contour of the hustle.
A dozen hustle skirts are all that the best
worker can complete in a day. The
ufactured on purpose for the trade,
and is sent to us with the pockets already cut.
All that is necessary to get it ready for the
skirt maker is to have our machine operators
sew the tapes to a waiStband. That takes Just
about a minute. The wire used for the hoops is
flexible steel, and can be bent or folded without
breaking, and will allow the hoopskirt to be
successfully packed in q very small bundle.
Anybody who ever tried to pack an old fashioned
hoOpskirt in a bundle will understand i'll an in
slant what an advance civilization has made in
this direction over the days of our grandmoth-
erS."
The manufacturer walked down stairs into his
show-r0Oms. Skirts hung on the walls on all
sides, and the bustles were heaped in great pro
fusion on the wooden counters. The variety OF
shapes displayed in the hoopskirts attracted the
eye of the visitor.
"Do fashions in hoopskirts vary much?'
"Well, | should say so. One year they're
big, the next year they're small, just as male
trousers are tight one year and big and baggy
the next. But a singular thing about the
hoopskirt fashions that masculine creation
INnDrr +hT nh1Y ,~1 AHnc 49, $1,000
themselves are scarcely aware of, is that the
kind Of skirt that the women of ono section of
the country wear will not DO for another sec
ton. Each demands its own particular style,
and gets it"
The manufacturer yanked a new made hoop
skirt down from overhead as he said this, and
put it up on the counter before the visitor.
1T may be truthfully said, he continued with
a laugh, that Boston just now takes the cake
for big bust(es. There is a weird and wonderful
expanse to their bustles that gives the women of
the Hub an exclusive distinction in the matter
of hoop skirts. This is the Boston style OF skirt
you are looking at now"
1t looked like a giant conical ~rat-trap that had
been hulged out at the back. The skirt was
thirty-six inches long, and the hustle of the same
length. Two strips of cloth were fastened at
the back of the hustle. They could be drawn
together with a lace like the two parts of a cor
set. The lace permitted the hustle to be con
tracted or expanded as a sailor might reef or
shake out q ships sail.
IF a Boston girl wants her dress to stick out
very prominently behind" the manufacturer
said. she Just takes a reef in the stays, and is
hapPy.a 10 40 conm i, u..,,
asked, as the Boston hoopskirt was hung upon
the wall again.
They come down just six inches on the hustle
part, the manufacturer replied, and they are
mighty particular that the skirt shan't be longer
than thirty four inches. The hustle is only
twelve inches long, and rests easily on the hips.
1t is called a hip hustle. The critical eye would
detect. furthermore, that the New York girls
don't take any reefs in their bustles. They are
made of flexible wire, and covered with light
flounced or puffed cloth"
"What do the Philadelphia girls wear?"
'That'S all said the manufacturer abruptly,
as he tossed a small hustle on the counter.
1t was made of three coils Of Wire that looked
like sausages piled one above the other.
so far as II concerns bustles. he added, phil
adelPhia is away behind the age. It's girls
wear the smallest bustles on the continent, and
they never appear to change their taste about it.
either, despite the ambitious example set them
10y the girls of Boston. The Philadelphia hustle
is a Shy and retiring thing that stands just about
nowhere in the fashionable hOopskirt world
The girls of the boundless and growing
West the h%Oopshirt maker concluded, ARE not
particularly preiudiced about any one style of
hoopskirt or hustle. They just take their pick
from the fashion plates that are sent along with
laneous assortment of all the styles to Chicago,
San Francisco. and other big cities out there
every few months. The shipments include
everything in the market with one exception,
and that is the Philadelphia hustle. The Phila-
delphia is d purely local and exclusive curiosity
One Actor Who Doesn't Swear.