The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-11-25
JOB OF MAN COAT MODEL.
In Some Ways Unlike That of Cir
Cloak Model.

From the New York Sun.
Much has been written about the cloak
models, the young women of standard
forms who try on cloaks, but not so
much, perhaps nothing at all, has been
printed about the young men of fine fig
ure who try on mems coats.
The cloak models are employed in
wholesale establishments for the better
display of cloaks to buyers. The coat
model has like duty to perform in try
Ing on mems coats in the salesrooms of
wholesale clothing establishments; but he
finds other and perhaps his most constant
employment in the cutting department, in
trying on coats before they are finished,
such models being employed only by
wholesale manufacturers producing ready
made clothing of the highest grades
The designer may lay out a coat that
should come out perfectly designed,
but he wants to see how it will fit and
hang on a properly proportional living
man; and he tries it on the model. There
are coats of different styles, and of diff
ferent fabrics requiring different treat
ments in the cutting; and so, what with
the fittings of the various coats in the
various sizes, there are many tryngs on,
and between the fitting and the sales
. room, where he tries on finished garments
for the inspection of buyers, the model is
kept busy.
A large establishment might have three
or four models of different heights and in
the manufacturing and sales seasons they
would be as continuously employed in
trying on coats as they might be in any
other occupation.
1t is not easy to find coat models that
fill out the requirements perfectly. 1t is
not so difficult to find men who are well
built and well set up and of the required
proportions physically, but the model
must be neat and trim man and if he
is to be employed in the salesroom. per-
sonally presentable and yet not conspicu-
Gus.
Grace and beauty would add to the
value of perfectly proportional cloak
model and enhance in the buyers eye the
value of the coaks displayed upon her
| but such qualities would be less desira-
| BILE in a coat model. for the buyer would
| scarcely be attracted so favorably by
| them in one of his own sex.
| So the salesroom coat model should not
be man of appearance so striking in any
way that sitting here, waiting, he would
catch the eye of buyers as they came in.
He will, of course, be perfectly proper
| TONED man and he should, of course. be
| well dressed and in every way presenta-
! BILE, but not striking to the eye.
| There should be nothing about him to
distract attention from the coats he tries
on and at the same time he should be
able by his own qualities, personal as
well as physical, to set these off to the
best advantage. So the perfect coat
model would be fine. wholesome, man
1y, lkable man. in every way presentabl
and of good sense and withal a modest
gentleman.
But 1t is not so common as it might
seem it would be to find all these quail
ties In combination with perfect physical
proportions in the same man; and so, as
already stated. the finding OF perfect coat
models for the salesroom is not SO easy.
New York clothing manufacturing
concern that advertised lately for a 5
foot inch model enumerated among the
requirements that the model must be a
young man, alert ana of good figure and
neat appearance and with breast meas
urement of thirty-six inches and a waist
measurement Of thirty-tUo. In response
, TO this advertisement there were between
thirty and forty applicants, the majority
| of whom filed the physical requirements;
they were well built, finely proportioned
men, but not all filed all the other re-
quirenents so readily. There was found
among them. however, the man wanted.
coat model five feet eight inches in
height and with breast thirty-six inches
and waist thirty-two Is in the trade con-
| sidered as a standard model everywhere
From that models go up in height to six
feet, with corresponding increases in
| their other measurements.
A designer of fine manufactured cloth
ing said that as indicated by the demand
for such clothing the stature of men is
increasing.