The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1917-05-06
TALKING It OVER A.
WITH SK|RTMAKER
Need of Cooperation Between Maker
of Fabric and Garmcut
Manufacturer.


! for the afternoon, the representative
| of a dress goods house pat num-
| Der OF samples in his pocket and paid
a visit to a skirt manufacturer of
his acquaintance. It was his idea
that. while the samples were mo co.
with his general trade. they might
appeal; to the skirtmaker because at
some time or other he had heard man
ufacturers in that line were after new
/ ideas and were attracted by original i,
designs.
The salesman was talking to his
! friend only a short time when he. had
an opportunity to dig down into hi.
pocket and produce his samples. The =
manufa cturer went through the bits
of cloth carefully and made some Sc
lections. But his choice did not rest
! there. With the patterns he had
/ picked out before then he began to
! give instructions on how the designs
should be changed
! YOU want to allow five and three
| quarter inches for the background and
! the two stripes in this CLOTH" he said
because we've found that for our
| purpose such width and distance be-
tween two stripes are necessary TO
cut the cloth econ omically. Matching
designs is one Of our biggest prob
lens, and II we can get the pattern
/ TO suit us 1t means big saving to
) US w men tHe stripe OF lS 1uSL
! a little bit out of the way we either
have to waste cloth or turn out an
unsightly garment"
| The lecture proceeded along similar
I lines until the manufacturer had fully
/ indicated his desires on all the sam
! pies he had selected Here it was n
stripe that needed changing little
closer TO another stripe, there a sug-
| gestion was made for different color
! {f mil nh fa ~ p
deletion of a figure Ee.a
/ After this business was concluded,
the talk ranged along general lines.
! The skirt manufacturer informed his
visitor that the most important reason
for the dinner that his trade organi-
cation gave last week was to explain
10 mill men the special needs of the
| industry. Much. he said had been
! accom- plished year ago when a SINH
/ lar affair was held Several mills were
induced at that time. he expiaineds to
go about making fabrics specially
| adapted to the needs of the skirt
manufacturers The latter he added
| were always ready to offer suggestions
! which the mills could take with profit.
The skirt manufacturer was eager
to hear how the saiesmans mill went
bout the designing of fabrics, and
the method pursued was explained to
him. 81
When We start to get up our line
for new season" the salesman said,
we call upon firms that have foreign
designs 10 sell. Lately however. thiA
hasn't been a very good source OF
style inspiration, so we have depended
more upon oar old sample books.
The mill organizations that are not
so fortunate as we in having books
containing samples for many years
back must place more reliance on the
fpy1 ia
our sample books We pick out what
We think is in line with the style
trend. Sometimes we put out cloth
similar In every respect to the fHhric
that had a vogue years back. This
does not happen often, because we
make change here or there which
may alter the design conpleteiy
Having made our selections, we send
> on the collection af-Safss flas-te -4s+.+-
mill designer. with instructions cover
ing the changes we have made Ask
ing his opinion of them is usually
Formally. He passes them and soon
our samples begin to come through.
"As you sec, we get no help from
the outside; that is, from our GUS
toners, who ought to know more
about what they need than we should.
| Textile designing in this country seems
to be an endless repetition, relieved
now and again by the necessity of
initiating foreign fabrics that come
over here in imported models"
! The salesman went little further
in describing the lack Of cooperation
between the mills and their cps
TONERS 49,
"In the general trade taking I'm
the coat. suit, and dress manufac-
turers." he said. there is an utter lack
of originality. If we bring out a
/ cloth that is new, the first sale. y4Dcst
nF t,N,a W. fe a y
the statement that 1T is a fine cloth
and going big with the houses we
! have shown it to SO far II the saies-
man attempted to put over Ills first
sale on such a fabric by merely
praising it without handing out the
information that other firms had al
ready made heavy purchases of it
the chances are 4 hundred to one
! that the customer would turn II down.
In refusing to buy it you could count
upon him saying, I'm afraid TO take
| 1t, Nobody else Is showing anything
! like it. The matter would end there
| Nobody else is showing anything Hike
! it. And yet the constant cry OF the
/ coat and suit trade is for something
new When the manufacturers have
an opportunity to buy something new
they refuse to do so because the ia
brio hasn't got a dozen limitations on
/ the market. which. of course. Is alb
surd. A thing can't be new and fat
the same time have number Of imi-
tations.
Now. in the clothing trade.'s he
continued. sit is quite bit different.
In the first place, the grade or IA
brics dealt in is of a more stable char
acter than in the women's wear trade.
Secondly. the ciothiers are better in-
formed as a rule on cloth yalliass de-
signs and other details connected with
the buying of piece goods. when a
style is originated by mems wear
MILL no difficulty at all is experfenced
in finding Il buyer. Not only does the y
buyer quickly see the possibilities In i
the new design, but he frequently
wants the sale of the pattern restrie1ed
to him. He works on just tho - d
verse theory to that followed hMfth2s
average women's wear manufacturers
The question is not how many other u
manufacturers have bought a certain
fabric. but how few. In short. he Z
relies upon his own Judgment or do
sign and cloth our lily. ~
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