Los Angeles daily herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1884-1890, 1889-06-09
MEN IN CORSETS.
The Sterner Sex Just as PROUD o.
Their shapes as Women.

Sh&PCs 49,
There is in one of the corset manuiac
tories of New York little blonde-halreu
woman who has for years mace spe
cislty of mems corsets, ana mas es'ap
lished an extensive business IN West
ern city. She had man trained 70
take the measures and tit the corsets, ana
frequently she, or her forewoman' never
saw the customers Tor whom they
made corsets regularly.
very paying business 1or
men rarely question the price OF an
article they wish to purchase, and men s
corsets are always made to order ana
never kept in stock. A woman the shape
of a tub and woman the shape OF
broomstick will buy the same make oil
corsets in different sizes, and somehow
ct herself into them; but ii a man wants
a corset at all he wants it to hit, and the
cheapest ones made to order cost SiV'
They do not differ materially
from woman's corset IN con-
struction, being made OF the same mate
rial, only with heavier bones ana stronger
steels. They differ very materially ID
shape, however, being shorter and nearly
straight up and down, though the con-
slant wearing of corsets conduces TO
added fullness of chest, which compen-
safes for the pretty bust curves ana slope
in q woman's waist. They are usnalIy
made of gray sateen or coutll, put occas-
ionally very fastidious customer Is
found who orders the dalntlest Oh ma
terials snd decorations.
One of the lady's customers always
wore satin corsets OF dellcate Color,
Tossed and laced with silk. he YVES
very stout, and broke great many Oh
the silk laces, which woman Will wear
almost q year without breaking. one OF
his latest orders is Nile-green satin cor
set Tossed and laced with cardinal SILK,
and trimmed at the top and bottom Win
fine white lace, for which he PAID $zo I;
NO demur.
Another customer was 30 extremely
modest that he never went into the store,
but his wife took his measure ana or.
dered the corsets, fitting them on herseli
when they we're finished. IL requires
three visits to insure perfect-httlng cor
set--one for the measure, which Is taken
very carefully; one for the fitting, when
only half the bones are in and the steels
basted in place, and one for the final eX-
animation, when everything Is hnlshed'
After one perfectly-ftting corset has been
made, however, only one hitting Is re-
quired.
coRsETs ARE WORN MORE BY ACTORS,
the fit of whose garments furnish az
present large proportion OF their STOCK
in trade. Then there are clerks who sit
bending over desks all day and half the
nipht, to whom corsets are frequently
recommended by their physicians as a
help toward Strengthening their curved
h.
physical imperfections are obliged to
wear them, and fair percent
age of dudes who rejoice
ie a small waist and a smoothly
fitting coat. An ambitious cutter in one
of the swell establishments, where a suit
of clothes may be purchased for the
price of a brown-stone block, has an idea
of winning an heiress for his wife at
some popular summer resort where he
spends his vacations, and accordingly
arrays himself in all the elegance the
establishment affords, hooks himself into
a double.boned corset, and lays siege to
the hearts of the fair ones. Before he
adopted the corset, he buckled broad
belt of heavy leather about his body at
the waist, but as he grew stout this
expedient lost its efficacy.
bv his fellow-men as the faintest touch
of rouge on q woman's face is always
discovered by her sister woman. Gentle
men say that a man in corsets gets up
stairs like a woman and walks differ
emily, and that if you observe him
closely for few minutes he will give a
little peculiar hitch to his shoulders, as
If he were endeavoring to pull himself
M out of the corsets. 1t was by watch
ing Barry Wall mounting flight Of
stairs that it was fully determined that
he was laced into snugly fitting corset.
His wife accompanied him, and they
made the same motions in the ascent.
Both the king dude and his rolly-polly
little chum wore corsets regularly on
important occasions. 1t was at Nine.
Griswald's, on Broadway, that the pink
haired dude returned pair of baby blue
satin corsets, trimmed with lace, after
thew had been fitted three times, to
have them made half an inch smaller,
and his anxious perplexity was very
amusing to the mischievous, merry
maiden who fitted them on. 1t is no
secret that Osmond Tearle wore corsets,
and that Kyrle Bellew wears them still.
The noble Antony has them made IN
London, in a little shop in Conduit street.
They are not trimmed with pink lace or
embellished with embroidery, which is
the only surprising thing about them,
but they are deliciously small and very
short, not more than six or eight inches
up and down.
In the same shop the Duke of Beau
fort has the pink satin, laced-eged cor
sets, which he makes no secret OF wear
inn manufactured and
EMBROIDERED WITH HIS MONOGRAM,
surmounted by ducal coronet. He is
an old decrepit man, with wrinkled
yellow face, and fringe Of white whis-
kers. and so bent over with age that the
line of his corsets is plainly observable
through his dress coat. 1t is said that
the Prince of Wales affects them, too,
and that is why he has abandoned
horseback riding. Corsets are worn
quite extensively by men in Paris, and
all the handsome officers in the German
armv wear corsets under their uniforms.
Though corsets areworn by men in New
York it is extremely difficult to find out
where they are made. There is no special
mandatory for them, and though most
of the 6rst-class corset places receive
orders for them occasionally, they are
very reticent on the subject, for any pub
licity given to the fact would destroy the
business altogether. There is one bright
woman corset-maker on Fourteenth
street who advertises to make specially
of mems corsets and receives a great
MANY orders, which she fills sim
,,lu NV TAKING women'S coreetS