Evening star., 1901-05-18
SHIRT WAISTS FOR MEN

1.-THE ungainly, unshapely people who
can't wear the garment themselves, and
who. therefore, scowled at the male shirt
waist last summer and predicted that as it
was only an idiotic fad, 1t wouldn't be re-
vived at all this year, are in for big sur
prise pretty soon.'' remarked a travelling
man in the haberdashery line. The male
shirt waist is SO far from being a dead
issue that I wouldn't be at all surprised
to see it universally adopted, in this coun-
try at any rate. within the next two or
three years. 1t is going to have five or
ten times as great vogue this summer as
1t had last season, as / am in a position to
know. The big firms of shirt makers have
felt the masculine pulse in this matter. and
the verdict is all in favor Of the shirt>waist.
They have accordingly gone in heavily
during the past fall and winter for the
manufacture of hot-weather shirt waists
for men, and it's the best gamble In the
world that their product won't be thrown
back on their hands. The vast majority Of
men approve Of the shirt waist. and SO do
the vast majority of women-particularly
women with husbands and brothers, who
have heard their men folks growing over
the discomfort Of wearing coats during the
sizzling spells. In most Of the big haber.
dashers' establishments Of New York
scores of varieties of shirt waists for men
are even now on exhibition, and the sales
have been good. The season is very back
ward over there, but when the hot days
come along it's ten to one that the shirt
waists will be Just eaten up by the male
population of New York, thus to put it.
The shirt waist for men had far greater
vogue in New York last summer than anv
OF the newspapers set forth. There were
some extremely hot days when Broadway
was positively Uttered with coatless men,
and they weren't faddfstS or Willieboys
either. Without going into details as to
the fashioning of these new shirt waists
for men. l may state with a fair degree of
knowledge that the puzzle has been solved,
and that the new garments are in every
respect neat cool and entirely within the
limits even of that puritanical species OF
propriety which causes some persons to
shudder at the spectacle of man in his
shirt sleeves. l never saw anything dis
graceful in a shirt-sleeved man. myself,
but there were lots Of elderly ladies of a
who wrote cutting letters to the newspa-
pers embodying their ideas, and, OF course,
the problem they set up had to be met by
the manufacturers. 1t has been met, and
the shirt waist is going to take hold big.
THE great difficulty In introducing an in
novation of this character is the natural
conservativeness of the male Being in this
country and his fear of ridicule. There
were doubtless thousands and tens OF thou
sands of men last year who In their hearts
envied the Independent chaps who paraded
around In a state of obvious comfort In
shirt waists and yet they were restrained
the newspapers about the male shirt waist
and by fear of the laughter Of their equally
conservative friends. But considerations
of this sort are not going to prevail when
the real rush for the male shirt waist sets
In, and I.predict that in the course Of the
next two or three summers the man who
appears on the streets on a hot day with
coat on will look odd. There's no reason
why the men shouldn't be as Independent
in these affairs and as oblivious to criti-
cism the women. You'll observe that
when a new kink in the feminine dress is
introduced the women take it up and stick
to it without any regard whatsoever for
criticism or the ridicule of the funny folks
who write for the newspapers. When the
jersey for women was sprung and the fun
in the papers ragged fast and furious over
it. did the women abandon the garment?
Not bit of it. They went right on wear
ing it until they got tired Of it. Did crit
icism or the fear of ridicule prevent women
from sticking to their big sleeves when
they We're in fashion? Or their bustles?
Or their pull-back skirts? Not much. And
herein the women have far more spunk
than the men. Do the somewhat savage
criticisms constantly appearing in the news
papers throughout the country over the
way the women of today are holding their
skirts induce the women to hold their skirts
any other way? Not if / know it, and I'm
jumping around the country a good deal.
The women who first wore rainy-day skirts
were laughing stocks. but they persisted,
and now there's not one woman in ten
VINO hasn't rainy day Skirt hanging on
the hook for use in sloppy weather or for
bike riding.
1.-The advantage that the male shirt waist
has is that it makes for comfort There
are millions Of men in this country who
wouldn't adopt faddy ideas in dress that
were simply designed for looks from the
fashionable point OF view, but who never
theless think heap Of comfort, and when
an appreciation of the manifold advantages
of the shirt waist soaks into the minds of
these men and the slump toward the shirt
waist begins there are lot Of fogyfsh
persons of the sort that regard the shirt
sleeved male bipeds as indecent who are
due to be shocked a heap"