New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1911-07-30
Secrets Of Fashion Making
How the Ideas of the Great Partisan Dress
Makers Are Adapted for American Use.

! could draw a really plain looking girl
the kind you see on the streets-not this
/ silly, pretty type that YOU never do see
/ Wouldn't 1t be fun TO dress up an ugly
girl in the latest styles?
Where did this design come from
! Let me see. ] believe | originated 1t my
/ self There are really three ways by which
/ We get our designs and that is one or
course. an original design has TO conform
/ iE general TO the prevailing style. but there
/ is wide range of chance for variety In
combining old clements with new or vary
/ ing some one point or adding a new touch
/ to what is already established as the style.
THE great part OF the really new fash
ions are designed as you know, in Paris.
/ The great dressmaking firms employ peo-
| pie TO make rough sketches Of their gowns.
and these sketches they sell TO us They
usually are very crude, showing only the
main points about the dress, and with just
a splash Of color here and there to show
| the color scheme. We take these sketches,
/ draw them over. color them according to
the suggestions. and they have 10 be
, printed I'm our books with sketched by
Worth at the bottom. Another way we
get hints for our designs is from similar
| sketches made by our own artists. We
send a young girl out on the avenue TO
get sketches from the shops and the pass
/ ersby. Haven't you seen girl sometimes
draw a tiny pad from her pocket and mark
It quickly. casting furtive glances around
all the time lest she be detected? Or. she
may walk around inside the store and
make drawings from the gowns displayed
within American shops are much easier
I 10 do fu English.
there you can't so into a store without
clerks coming forward. What does mad
am WISH and then you have TO buy some
thing to get rid Of them. Here in America.
on the other hand. you can so into a store
and wander around as much as you like
without being spoken TO. 1t is easy then
to make little quick sketches. hidden in
the palm of ones hand. l like the English
stores when l really want to buy some
thing. but the American ones when l am
gust out looking at things. / never really
have to make the sketches of which 1
have been telling YOU That is too ele-
mentary work for q head artist, They al
ways send the new apprentices out 10
make those sketches. Then I use them
guides and models for my large drawings.
"rhe only other difference / have noticed
that you Americans wear much better
ltailormades You seem TO take more pains
about your cloth suits, and insist on their
fitting perfectly. You wear them a great
deal more, too. Here on the street, you
seem TO think you are not properly dressed
unless you have on a tailormade English
women wear them only when they are
sporting. or on cold mornings in town.
Before the extremely hot weather comes
YOU see nothing on Fifth avenue but dark
serge suits. Bond street at the same sea-
son would be full OF light muslin dresses
/ Think how much more comfortable the
thin dress is, and how much prettler
picture group OF women make when SO
attircd, ! cannot understand why Ameri-
cans are SO devoted to the tailormade
though ] must say they have the best
ones in the world.
/ They are almost as bad, / hear, about
house dresses, what we call teagowns, such
as this ! have on. We always wear loose
gowns like this, without corsets. at after
noon tea. and have such a comfortable
restfUl hour before getting ready for dinner
and the evening. You Americans, poor
things. don't have tea, and you keep in
your tight gowns or stiff blouses until
evening, and you don't even dress for din
Iuer as much as English women DO. over