The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1886-11-11
Tailors for Ladies.

|
/ A New York dispatch dated Oct. 80,
gives the following statement about rev.
olution in making ladies' dresses. It is a
break in long established usages which ar
CUES no good to lady seamstresses. and
will cause many of them to suffer- But
fashion in an memorable tyrant, and who
i ever suffers the devotees of fashion will
| have their way when they have the means
to crafty a craze
There are not taiIors enough in this city
who undertand the art of cutting and sew
ing women's garments to supply the de-
mand caused by the craze among fashiona-
bic women for tailor-made garments. The
demand for them grows day BY day. The
art is peculiar one, and requires more
skill than the tailoring for mems coats.
vests and trousers. The difference lies in
the necessity for closely fitting the curying
figure ola tightly Laced and hustle adorned
woman, in cutting whose garments there
is no plain sailing above the waist such as
a simpler figure of a man presents. The
shops in which women are now ordering
jackets, ulsters, waists and sacques in
crease faster than the working tailors
are able to learn the new trade. The
dress makers must be suffering, for many
women are now ordering whole suits made
in the tailor shops. The theory behind
this new fashion is that men display more
taste than women in deyising new forms
of drapery, new combinations of goods
and colors, and styles of ornamentation. =
Then, again, cloth is decreed by fashion
for all street-dresses this winter, and it has
naturally followed that the skirts shall be
made in the same place where the jackets
and waists are put together Women are
not entirely crowded out by this new
fashion, however 1t is a mistake to sup
Women's tailors and men dress makers
measure their women customers as they do
the men who come to them. The meas
ures are taken by women, and the men do
not actually touch or handle t heir lady
customers except in fitting" them after
the suits are made The mistaken notion
that the men dressmakers and women'S
tailors held the same relationship to their
customers that the old fashioned female
dressmakers did to women of old, hindered
the development of the new departure for
a long while. But as a matter OF fact.
women measure the lady customers IN
comp lete attire. in the presence of the
tailor, of course, and women assist the
customers on with the new garments when
they are to be fitted Women are not en-
trusted with the making Of sacques, jack
cts, ulsters or waists, however, because
these have to be lined, scanned, and III all
respects treated exactly as mems coats and
vests are, and therein lies the mystery and
knack of trade that is imposing tax OF
from fifty to one hundred per cent. more
money per dress from the Well-to-do Wo-
men of the land than they used topay te-
fore the new garments came into vogue.
OF late the female dressmakers haya teen
obliged to initiate tailor made garm ents in
self-defeace, and nearly all the enterprs-
ing ones are doing their best to keep their
customers by producing garments that aFe
in most respects as like the ones made by
men as one pea is like another Women
who cannot afford to go to the men set
the magic trademark of Fifth Avenue
woman's tailor sewed in the collars OF
their jackets, get tailor-made garments OF
their old-dressmakers and march the
streets as proudly as their more fortunate
sisters. There is one place in which a man
can detect the difference between the gen
uine and the bogus tailor made jacket
That place is the theater. Your real
swell, who backs her stylewith plethoric
wallet, walks to her orchestra chair,
shrugs her shoulders with a compressiye
wiggle that drops the Collar of the jacket
down her back, pulls one sleeve Oft q 4
then the other, and finally folds the s't
ment outside in with much ostel!aiiat's
Indifference and losses it over the back of
the chair, SO as to have tie collar .githihe
Fifth Avenue label eXposs'i Xactly under
the nose of the lady in tis1 II behind her
The spurious and econoa losi swell dos
nothing of the sort. Reaching her sea.
she turns her back to the stage and her
face to the folks in the next row back.
seuirms out of her jacket, fields it inside
out, and hangs it so skillfully over the
back Of her chair that no one but Il mind
reader Gan discover whether it has the
right stamp within CT no stamp at all. But
every one knows by the way the garment
is folded whether it is the genuine article
or not.