The Washington critic. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1889-1889, 1889-02-02
TILE PHILOSOPHY OF TIGHTS.
a savant's Opinion on the Question o
SILK FIeshing

a Savant's Opinion on the Question OF
silk Fieshiu ga
Mr.. Duzen, on Union Square, is the
savant who knows moro about the phi.
losophy Uf tights than Edison has
learned concerning electricity, says the
New York Sun.
"How do we fit tights?" he said, MS
he tossed down pair of flesh colored
silk that cost $12.
"Well, In two ways. Sometimes we
At the girl to the tights and sometimes
we fit the tights 10 the girl. In either
case she is measured for them rs man
is measured for u coat Tights come in
assorted sizes like stockings and cost all
the way from $l.50 up to $26. The
cheap ones are cotton in all colors; we
have woollen tights for $3.50, isle thread
of varying prices, aud then the silk ones
costing all the way from $40 to $25.
flights are always furnished by the
management, and most principals,
dancers and some chorus girls have them
made to order. If girl has symmetri.
as other girls fit on their stockings, but If
the leg is too slender the silk tights are
worn over heavy cotton ones. If, on the
other hand, Girl is not quite satisfied
with what the Lord has done for her, we
| fit her out with pair Of symmetries,
and he tossed down pair OF stockings,
| long enough to fasten around the waist,
of heavy cotton webbing, with silk feet.
| In the inside of the webbing was woven
tufted Australian lambs wool, soft and
fine, wherever deficiency In the leg
| occurred.
"Do many people wear these gar
ments?"
About seven out OF ten on The stage,
though they cost all the way from $12 to
$25. Sometimes they arc all made of
silk. We invented them ourselves, and
there's nothing like them, the girls say,
to defy detection. We keep the meas
urements Of every leg we have ever
fitted, and get orders from all over the
world for them. The German opera
people have taken them to Berlin, and
we get great many orders from there
now. You would be surprised at the di-
versity in legs. Sometimes the padding
is only required in q little place outside
of the knee, sometimes inside; some
times one leg will be smaller than the
other on the same woman. and all sorts
of freaks-but the lambs wool never
fails to supply the deficiency"
How long will pair Of silk tights
last?"
THAT depends on the person who
wears them. have known girls to wear
pair of tights year, and others cant
wear them o month, just MS some people
are harder on hose than others. They
have to be very nicely taken care Of, fol
If stitch breaks away II goes to the
very toe If 1t isn't caught at once. After
they have been worn little while they
have TO have the runs sewed up almost
every night, the threads get 30 frail."
Tights are put on like stockings SO far
as the feet are concerned, and girl Sit
down to do it, and puts on her slipper:
before she gets up. Then they are slowl,
rubbed on, like pair Of new gloves, W
to the waist, where they are secured In {
variety of ways. Dancers are the mos
particular, and never can get their tight:
on tight enough. They twist up littl'
wad Of soft paper, tie bit of the tights
around 1t at the top with one end Of {
long tape, bind the other end of the tap
tightly around and around the waist
and then pull the heavy cotton webbing
woven in the top Of the tights vi
through this.
This is the m ost interesting part of tn
: ceremony, for the shining legs are curvet
of beauty before the danseuse is quit
sure that every wrinkle is smooth. Thel
she pins the webbing over the tapes wit
safety pins, futters into her gauze frills
and pirouettes out before her admirer
with the consciousness that the principa
part of her costume is on to stay. Som
girls tie buttons and pennies or gol
,, pieces for luck into the webbing to taste
! the strings, but in either case this metho