St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-10-22

lCS
Special Letter 10 the Globe.
NEW YORK, Oct. live don't often
discuss how things are made, do we?
We generally talk about how things
look. This week I am going to talk
about what l learned in that holy of
notes.-the work room. | talked to the
drPssmakers and they told me many
things. Some of these things didn't
understand. but l tried to look as
though l did, because 1 know there is
nothing that dries elOquence up so
much as the want of proper and appre-
ciative understanding in the listener.
And then l know that many of my read
ers are more intellectual than | am,
and. perhaps. leasing on" and other
technicalitieS of a similar vagueness,
will appeal to them with more force
than it does to me, and suggest things
which are not quite shrouded in mys-
terry.
After all, everything has reached the
perfection Of art now, and in inter
viewing a French dresSmaker ones at
tentiOn requires to be Just as alert and
concentrated as If one is listening TO the
learned egOtism of a fashionable painter,
CT a librettist, or even dancer who de-
scribes her gyratiOns in a language
Whichis often only her own. \ good many
intervieWers find that their lions say
too little-thev won't tell how they do
their tTicks-a and for my part l don't
blame them. They're no longer tricks
when every one KNOWS how they're
done. Nothing is so valuable when Won
know all about it. don't have to com
plain of Teticence. | believe that there
is nothing so vOluble as a French dress
maker-eXcept, perhaps, book agent.
She sat gesticulating like an animated
pin cushion, with tape measure wound
about her IN Medusa-like fashion. and
told newell! l couldn't pretend
TO remember or tell all that she
told me; in the first place life is too
short; in the second, this newspaper
doesn't allow me more than three col
umnS: and, finally, lot of her infer
nation seems TO be away from its sur
TOundings, ike niger minstrel song
without the striped shirt and banjo. If
l had three tape measures, a pair of
shears, ten yards of silk lining and a
chatelaine with an apOplectic pincushion
and an emery cushion on it, think !
could get On all right. But what is any
thing without background?
WHAT SIZE SAID.
She stated that no seams are the prin-
Cipdi feature II the DOQlceS OF today.
The lining has seams, of course. The
lining may have any amount of seams,
but the outside is seamless. There is a
seam over the shoulder and under the
arm, and this seam over the shoulder
has increased in length a good deal
since the 1880 style came in. She fur
Their stated that sleeves should be mad G
also with only one seam, and that
should come where you can't see it.
The moral of all this seems to be that if
no one can see where the gown fastens,
you're tiptop dressmaker, and if the
opening is visible to the naked eye,
you're not up much. The pattern OF
the modern sleeve looks rather like the
map OF Africa, the curved part around
the top measuring about one and three.
quarters yards. The armhole is small.
The fullness begins in front about
four inches forward of the shoulder
seam. The new-fashIone dbasques are
cut very, very much on the bias. They
are perfectly plain around the hips, and
cat almost circular below. Buttons and