The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-05-04

The thing that a person wants TO be care
ful Of. though, Is not TO wear a business
suit when the affair calls for either after
noon or evening dress. or to wear this dress
about town to transact business In.
1.-The men OF this city do not dress like
the New Workers, who are much more
fsshy in their attire. The men in this city
wear clothes more after the style Of the
Philadelphians. who have the reputation of
being very conservative dressers. Once in a
while an Indianapolis man VIII splurge and
get himself up in some outlandish costume
and coax himself into the belief that he is
dressed very plainly. These people who
wear what We call freak clothing are not
well dressed because they are extremists,
and to wear an extreme style is as bad as
not being up 10 date at all. The freak dress
err is one who. when the trousers are cut
wide. has his cut wider than anybody else,
or when coats are worn short his is shorter
than anybody's else. The man who dresses
neatly and properly is by far the best
dressed and best looking"
Where do styles originate and who are
the best dressed men in the world?' the
tailor was asked.
styles don't originate anywhere. 1t is
generally understood that London is where
styles come from for mems clothing and
Paris for women's dresses, but this old
theory has been knocked in the head long
ago in both cases. Styles come from the
rich men, for il is they who do the fashion
able dressing. and it is only reasonable that
they should start the fashions. For in
stance, this style that is in vogue now of
the military coat with the large trousers
was started by the college boys in the East,
and then older men got TO wea-ing the
same cut clothes in a somewhat modi-
fed form. This fashion will keep on being
changed a little here and there by people
who are nobby d~ressers and who want
something a little original. until there will
be hardly any semblance of the first style
left.
IN answer to the second question 1 will
Say that the American men and women are
the best dressed I'm the world. In the foreign
countries they don't know how to make
clothes. When I was in London not long
ago I took particular notice of the way
the Englishmen dressed. because I had been
told that they were the most nobby dress
ers in the world. Well. it didn't take long
for me to learn that 1 mad been greatly de-
ceived, for a shabbier and more careless
lot Of dressers I never saw. I remember
one day I was standing in front of one of
the prominent hotels in London watching
the crowds go by, and 1 saw a man coming
down the steps leading from the front en-
trance, and it did my eyes good to look at
him. There 1 was, dressed in an English
suit, and a more ill-htting and omf
able affair I never saw or wore. The mar
coming down the steps was an American,
but he had on American clothes. and they
were neatness and trimness themselves.
His clothes fit him snugly, a thing that an
Englishman's clothes never do, and they
hung about him in a way that gave him
style. To tell the truth, 1 never appreciated
American tailoring so much in all my life
as L did that day. After 1 became more &C
customed TO things over there 1 found that
you could tell a man from this country as
far as you could see him by his clothes.
TT trouble with the London tailors is
that they do not understand cutting. which
IS by all means the most essential thing in
turning out a stylish suit of clothes. What
I mean by this is that in cutting trousers.
for instance, they will have them shaped so
that most of the goods will go to the front
instead Of having It evenly distributed.
Consequently. you never see an Englishman
80 q 49, NNNA-5 E0A 80
The Londoner's clothes all tend to hang
like a sack. They wear them very loose and
entirely without fit. In England the styles
that prevail are just opposite TO those that
are being worn in this country. If. in Amer
lea. the coats are being worn long, in Lon
don, the are short. and when coats are
made short over here they are long over
there. The truth is, the English can't cut.
make or wear clothes.
In Paris the fashions are worse than
they are in London. The Frenchmen abso-
lutely know nothing about dress. When 1
was there they were wearing very large
buttons on their coats that were about the
size Of a silver dollar, and their styles gen.
orally were very crude. In the principal
cities of Germany. particularly in Berlin,
they dress more like the Americans than
in any other OF the foreign cities. They
have a neatness and ht about heir clothes
that are not seen in the wearing apparel of
the other foreigners. The men Of Russia
have very little style about heir clothes,
and are something on the order OF the
Frenchmen. The -strangest thing Of all is
that none Of these cities has fashions any
thing alike. the styles in each of them be-
ing entirely distinct.
BEST CLOTH MADE HERE.
The people Of this country also labor
under another misapprehension. and that
IS in regard to the make of cloth. 1t is gen.
orally claimed that the English goods are
the finest manufactured, but the truth Of
the matter is they are only fine IN name
and not in quality. The reason for this is
that they haven't the climate over there
for the making OF cloth. You understand.
10 be able to manufacture certain kinds OF
cloth il is essential to have certain kinds
Df climate, and you can only find hat CHI
mate in America. For the making OF clay
worsteds. in England it is necessary to go
20 the extreme north. because there 1t is
very dry and barren. while the manufactur-
ing OF cloth is all done in the west. where
the atmosphere has a certain moisture
sbOut IT. In this country you can manufac-
ture these goods anywhere. The water that
the wool Is washed through also has much
TO do with the quality OF goods that are
made. A great many things which seem 10
be mere tribes TO the ordinary person are
a necessity in turning out a fine quality OF
goods. There is another thing in which our
Eastern manufacturers can beat the for
eigners. In this the old story OF the
~arEaafE shraurduaSG IN heating q borOaf1