Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-01-11
HOW SMELLS ARE MADE.
A Haberdasher Tells Star Reporter
Some Secrets of His Trade.
DRESS SHIRT nosoMs ALI. IMPORTED FROM PARIS

SOfnc SeCrcts Oh HIS 1rdOe.
DRESS SHIRT BosoMs ALL IMPORTED FROM PARIS
SOME THAT COST TEN DOLLARS APIEcE-How
SHIRTS, COLLARS AND CUFFS ARE MADE-FAcTs
ABOUT NEcKIIEs-cANEs AND SHIRT STUDS.
| AZ suppose" said the haberdasher s'you are
not aware that all the dress shirt bosoms come
from Paris. And vet it is so-that is to say, all
those that are sold by irst-class gentlemen
furnishing houses. The shirts themselves are
not imported. for the reason that the French
do not understand the art of making them.
Buy shirt of the best maker over there and
you will find that it has no more fit than bag.
But when it comes to bosoms, none of Aneri-
can make can approach the Partisan manutac-
| ture. See this, for instance. Here is French
bosom of perfectly plain pattern; yet observe
| how exquisite the finish is-not merely as re-
CARDS the laundering but more particularly in
respect to the stitching and such fine points.
Take notice Of the delicacy of the button holes
| the places for the studs, / mean-how each
one is outlined as carefully and prettily
as II the work was so much EN-.
| button holes in an American BOSOM And the
| seam that runs along the edge of the opening
| down the middle-how fine and straight it is,
| like hair line, when actual embroidery is
4
cry is just the proper thing at present. Manu-
| facturers in this country cannot at all compete
| with the foreign. This. for example, is a
! bosom in the very latest and most accurate
style. as it is affected by men who have real
| knowledge of what is the thing to wear. 1t
has, you see, single line of fowery embroid-
| cry, not too conspicuous. running down the
middle, in white silk Nothing could be more
| unexceptionably lie frontage, as one might say,
| than this. OF course you imagine that the
| m 10 ha,
would tell you that it was such. As a matter
| OF fact, however, it is done by machines of
| almost inconceivable delicacy. The retail
| price of this bosom is S1.75; shirt made to
| order with it costs $3.50; the same shirt with
perfectly plain French bosom is 81 so. If Gus
toner comes here to purchase q dress shirt we
give him nothing else but the imported bosom,
permitting him to choose for himself among
the sample bosoms in stock. We take his
measure, as for any other shirt have our own
operatives make it with the bosom chosen and
the buyer enjoys the advantage of a Partisan
style combined with American comfort
COSTLY BosoMs FOR DUDES.
"Some of the dress bosoms in these boxes
seem wonderfully elaborate suggested The
STAR writer, paving them gingerly over.
Eyes, they run up as high as 80 apiece. But
men who really have good taste do not wear
such costly ones, for the simple reason that they
are too snowy. Partisan dudes of the newest
evolution might sport such gaudy decoration,
but not the handles of Washington, New
York or Boston. Even the striped shirts
IN blue and red that had such rage year or
two ago, particularly in the metropolis, have
gone out now. 1t was imagined then, You may
remember, that there was u serious tendency
TO reverslon In mems costumes to the mole
snowy fashions of days long ago. The illustra-
ton of this Afforded by the colored shirts to
be followed, some authorities thought. by such
innovations as knee breeches and silk stockings,
rainbow sashes instead of dress waistcoats
and modified coats for evening" But, although
the movement progressed as far as embroidery
for evening waistcoats fancy ornamentation
for shirts and sashes for tennis, it had rot suf-
ficient impetus to push it any further and al
ready reaction has begun-dress waistcoats
are plain white once more, or black satin, may
be. stripes have disappeared from shirts and
mems attire bids fair soon to be somber, as it
was before. No renaissance in the
art of male costuming is to be expected in this
generation. Here is a Paris shirt bosom for
So which might be sold readily in Chicago. I
have not disposed of one of them yet here. It
is a very beautifully executed piece of work
technically considered. You see, it is really an
exquisite imitation of that sort of material in
which embroidered silk and brocaded satin ap-
pear IN alternate stripes. Another thing that
Is extremely new-though not, perhaps what
man of the most highly educated taste would
selects this peated bosom, which has I2O
pleats on each side, or $40 pleats in ALL with a
band OF plain linen running through the middle
like brook through the meadow"
HOW SHIRTS ARE MADE.
"But what you have said only applies to
dress shirts"
THAT is true. All our shirts to order for
ordinary wear are made by our own operatives.
A irst-class haberdasher always has his own
factory. This does not mean necessarily
that he owns the factory outright.
though frequently he does SO, but often
that he has a share in one or con-
tributes to its employment Such a factory
need not be much of an affair; dozen female
hands will produce all the work to order in the
way of shirts and other things tina, is required
by two or three big furnishing houses. Only
skilled hands are employed for labor of the
sort, at pay that is far from excessive, though
they get more than do the thousands of women
occupied at shirt making in the huge factories
of the big cities in New York state and in Con-
necticut, which supply all this vast country
with ready-made linen garments of the billed
variety. The making OF shirts in these enor-
nous establishments is reduced to a science
mathematical. The parts are cut out. dozens
at time, with keen-edged knife by patterns
Men do this; the rest is all done by
women, who stitch the portions to-
gether. Stamping the trademark on
the collar band is the final operation before the
shirt Is sent to the laundry. At the laundry it
is done up in special department, not by the
ordinary machines but by hand. This is called
stock work and it costs from l5 to Is cents per
shirt The tribe, Of course, is added to the
price OF the article when it is exposed for sale.
Haberdashers usually get their ready-made
shirts by ordering directly from the manu-
facturers.
COLLARS AND CUFFS.
"How is it about collars and cuffs?"
"The supply for the United States is pro-
duced almost wholly in New York state, the
great center of manufacture being Troy. Col
lars and cults are turned out very much in the
same way that shirts are and the gentlemen's
furnlshers get them mostly from the makers
though often from jobbers What is the job
bers functlon5 Why, simply this: Suppose big
hrm gets out new collar. One hundred thou
sand dozen OF them would not be an excessive
hrSt edition. That means an order for ever SO
many thousand dollars worth of linen, you
know. Now, some of this linen-such things
OFTEN occur-may be defective. slipped
thread may appear here and there in it, which
you or any other person not an expert would
not observe at all. But the manufacturer rep
utation Is so precious to himself that it would
never do for him to put his trademark on the
goods produced from that linen and so adver-
tse them as his own. In this respect he is as
sensltlve-merely for business reasons-as the
true princess III the fairy tale who was rem
dered sleepless by the rolling OF the pea be-
meath the undermost of the sixteen feather
beds on which she slept. That slipped thread
might ruin his trade aud credit; So instead of
stamping the collars as his own make he
sells them unstamped to jobbers, who dispose
OF the inferior stock as made by so-and-so and