Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-02-01
HOW TO FIT TIGHTS.
Dealer Tells How these Articles are
Adapted to the Wearers.
From the New York Sun.

From the New York Sun.
Mr.. Dazien, ON Union square, is the savant
who knows more about the philosophy of tights
than Edison has learned concerning electricity.
"How do we fit tights?" he said as he tossed
down pair of f1esh-colored silk that cost S12.
well, in two ways. Sometimes we fit the girl
to the tights and sometimes we fit tine tights
to the girl. In either case she is measured for
them as man is measured for a coat. Tights
come in assorted sizes, like stockings, and cost
all the way from $3.50 up to S25. The cheap
ones are cotton, in all colors; we have wooden
tights for $3.50, Isle thread of varying prices,
and then the silk Ones costing all the way
from $40 to S25. Tights are always furnished
by the management, and most principals, dan
GERS. and some chorus girls have them made to
order. If girl has a symmetrical leg we sim
ply MT pair of tights to it as other girls fit on
their stockings but if the leg is too slender
the silk tights are worn over heavy cotton ones.
Ii. on the other hand, girl is not quite salts
fed with what the Lord has done for her. we
hit her out with pair of symmetrical" 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 a deficiency in
the leg occurred.
"Do many people wear these garments?'
"About seven out of ten on the stage. though
they cost all the way from S12 to 325 Some
times they are all made of silk. We invented
them ourselves, and there's nothing like them.
the girls say, to defy detection. We keep the
measurement 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 diversity in legs. Sometimes the padding
IL in r,1a s. ~.
knee, sometimes inside. sometimes 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 persons who wear
them. have known girls to wear pair of
tights year, and others can't wear them a
month. just as some people are harder on hose
than others. They have to be very nicely taken
care of, for if stitch breaks away it goes to
the very toe If it isn't caught at once. After
they have been worn a little while they have to
have the runs sewed up almost every night, the
threads get so frail.'
Tights put on like stockings so far as the
feet are concerned, and girl sits down to do
1T. and puts on her slippers before she gets up
Then they are slowly rubbed on. like pair Of
new gloves. up to the waist, where they are
secured in a variety of ways. Dancers are the
most particular, and never can get their tights
on tight enough. They twist up little wad of
soft paper, tie bit of the tights around it at
the top tn one end of long tape. bind the
other end of the tape tightly around and
around the waist, and thcn pull the heavy cot
ton webbing woven in the top of the tights up
through this. This is the most intere sting part
of the ceremony for the shining legs are
curved and kicked into hundred graceful
lines of beauty before the danseuse is quite sure
that every wrinkle is smooth. Then she pins the
webbing over the tapes with safety-pin3. fiutters
into her gauze frills. and piroIettes out before
her admirers with the consciousness that the
principal part of her costume is on to stay
Some girls tie buttons ana pennies or gold
pieces for luck into the webbing to fasten the
strings. but in either case this method of pro-
cedure is extremely painful and injurious,
particularly when some kind of heavy armor is
worn as corsage. Burlesque girls are next
to the dancers. the most concerned about the
fit and fastening of the tights. and add to the
button method of securing them an equally
uncomfortable and unhealthy fashion of buck
ling narrow leather strap tightly around the
waist. and pulling :he webbing up through it
to be pinned over i'll the same way.