Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1885-06-18
MiSFIT CLOTHING.
A Business Which, to the Uninitiated, Is a
Mystery.

York is getting to be quite an extern
sive business. Until three years ago
it was unknown or carried on in such
a small way as to escape notice.
Even now it is but little advertised,
as the demand from the initiated
fully equals the supply. The business
IN this city is controlled by two or
three houses that deal in misfits ex-
clusively. The dealers have contracts
with all the large tailoring establish
ments by which every misfit suit or
garment is at once taken. To the
maker the goods are almost a dead
loss, and they are therefore sold for a
very low price. In this way the deal
ers are enabled to sell them for about
half the origin fancy price charged
by the tailors. and at the same time to
make a very handsome profit.
There are tricks in all trades, and
the propretors of some ready-made
clothing houses, becoming aware of
the growing proportions of the mis-
fit trade, have established what they
are pleased to call ''misfit depart
ment," in which cheaply made clothes
of shoddy material, but with style
about them that easily deceives the
unwary, are palmed off as misfits. The
deception is even carried so Tar as to
sew on fraudulent makers tag, and
to furnish the trousers with buttons
having the name of a fashionable
tailor stamped upon them.
Whether it is that the tailors of
Gotham are more careful and make
better fitting clothes than Chicago tail
ors, or whether New Workers care less
if their apparel is baggy, wrinkled or
scant, is question, but at any rate the
misfits in Chicago outnumber ten to
one those in New York. The newspa-
pers there contain more advertisements
of misfit dealers than they do for genu
inc clothing houses.
.'Of course they are not genuine"
said dealer to Herald reporter, re-
ferring to the trade in Western cities.
''It is only the result of a very sharp
competition. He was standing in a
very dingy store that was filled on all
sides with piles of vari-colored and
many shaped coats, vests and trousers.
Sombre looking dress coats We're hang
ing side by side with snowy military
uniforms and gorgeous smoking jack
cts. In the same pile were shaggy
winter listers and striped cotton coats.
Dark cutawavs were mingled with loud
checks that suggested strongly the race
track.
''Most of our patrons are theatrical
people," continued the dealer as he
stroked light-colored, short-skirted
overcoat, that bore a London tailor's
name. 1--WE are very apt to get suits
that are somewhat too striking for Or
binary wear, but that are just the thing
for the stage. This brocaded silk
dressing gown is going out with a Z
2O-8' company for the old mans make
up. 1 sold it to the actor this morning
for SIS. 1t would cost about $50 to
have it made new. 1t is an unstable
article, you see, and have to let it go
for merely nominal price. The man
for whom it was made never called for
it."
''What sort of clothes do you get the
most OFF"
cit will seem little odd to you,
presume, but tailors seem to have less
luck with dress suits than anything
else. Partly because a dress suit is
very hard to altar from its peculiar
style, and partly because men are more
particular about the fit than they are
with other clothes. Nothing shows up
so bad as dress suit if it is little off.
Here is one of the new style, you see.
that was brought in the other day"
The dealer drew forth from pile a
plum colored garment with cutaway
front Then followed lowered satin
vest and pair of light colored knee
breeches, with black silk CATERS and
silver buckles.
THE young man that they were
made for couldn't stomach them when
they were completed. They fitted him
all right, but his calves didn't light |
up well in knickerbockers. He padded
them out once and wore the suit to a
reception, hut he got guyed so he was
only too glad to shake it. He tried to
get the tailor to take it back. but that
wouldn't work. They told him to
come to me. and bought them for a
song. He looked sort of disguised
W tn life, but he seemed glad to get
rid of the things at any price. l don't
think that style is going to take well.
The New York shank is too ungainly.'
Don't you find great difficulty in
getting the clothes to fit any one?'
'.Now, there is another rather
curious thing. Have you ever noticed
how often other peoples clothes fitted
you better than those you had made for
yourselfp Well, it's fact. 1t seems
as though tailors ought to take the
measure of b when they want to fit A.
We don't do as much altering as you
would think necessary. People object
to it. They prefer to put on suit that
fits them the first time rather than take |
any chances. If there is not one that |
suits them they tell us to hunt up one
that does. We have got any number of |
such orders.
..Do you deal in secondhand cloth
ing at ALP" /
"a very little. There are several
large houses in the city whose business |
that Is exclusively. It is their agents
that 60 around the city and buy second
hand clothing, hats, shoes. and all
kinds of furnishing goods. Their har-
vest is in the moving season and when
people are getting ready to go into the
in the beginning of summer. !
Then closets and wardrobes are cleared
out and their contents, some of them
almost new, given gladly to any one
who will take them away, In the
spring winter clothes, which would be
out of fashion next season, are parted |
with, and in the fall summer clothes
are not thought worth saving. The
traders gather these all in and
send most of them away. The South
gets the Ions share. There clothes a
year behind prevailing New York fash
ions pass unnoticed, and the goods,
which cost but little more than the ex-
pense incurred in cleaning them, are
sold for an exorbitant price. especially
al