We had come to look upon Yat ster Road a2 the playground for the ryely Jomininer but unfortunately if entirely in the nds of the mas-Guline of the pastes who've well knows how t0 entree all unwary Tad aeareh of Lingerie.
Bat we discovered, once there in earnest, that a vestige of women's right to her own really exists in the fact that the embroidered ware sone sees. in such profusion in this now well-known "and developing. street of embroidery tailors all done by women. Which ig. consoling and leads the mind to reflect at length upon all kinds of things.
First this question of undergarments which at different periods in the history of elegance of apparel seems to have some significance apart from its texture and cut. reflects the mental make-up of the Tndics of the age, Who, for instance, can deny that the mental restrictions of a certain age were due in part to the encompassing restrictions of an 18 inch waist measurement, or that rows of stiff petticoats did' not put a feminine mind in need of lubric tion, Who can deny the staid dignity imparted by the rustle of a taffeta sil petticoat entering any drawing Toom like the strains of a triumphal march, These days are of course now gone, and the "garson" curves of fashion's demands call forth certain necessitics in what shall be worn beneath any frocks. Yates Road, also, is filled with meanings of this kind and we go through a whole set of reactions in wandering in shop and ut of shop.
First, we ave affected by th finite variety" of the garments? appeal to every known type of fami me personality, The Yates Road tailor has shown his usual ingenuity inaction.—He has patterns ranging from the heavy ornamentation grape" embroidery scattered about fon hem and neck lings until it re ambles. prohibition propaganda,—t" the Intest French-like daintiness in embroidery, On the latter hangs a' tale, Being nothing if not. an opportunist, he sometimes ets his training tinder the discriminating eve of one of those foreign ladies who eater to a tourist der wear. Loyalty yielding in time ess profit than his own shop in Yates Rond, the tailor becomes another Chinese name amid the score which add to confusion unless one has-a sense of directions. One pays for this training, of course, though not quite so dearly as one might be ceted to pay when frequenting question who wore originally responsible for the tailor's toning down.
Tu the shops innumerable small boys seem busily engaged broidery craftsmanship, they are only Remstitehing making scallops or cutting out patterns already" embroidered. Now and then one hears tourist ex. clamations apropos these small boys. Their diminutive expertness is marvelled at and they are accredited with all the silk specimens on shelves and in shop windows.
But the soul of woman may here well heave a sigh of relief that in a land where many of her gowns are moulded and meted out by Chinese tailors of the genus homo at least the essential part of the lingerie which she buys in Yates Road ig presided over by women. Chinese women in the native parts of the city'
all of the embroidering before the garments are cut out. Then they are returned to the Yates Road shop and made into various and sundry underthings, Aren't we All?
This becomes a minute consolaon, however, when facing the battery of the lingerie shop-keeper's salesmanship. No woman can be really safe from the uncanny knowledge of feminine human nature possessed by these salesmen, nor from their knowledge of the' light that lies in a woman's eyes when they dwell upon the trellisses of embroidery and the hem itching upon fin: heavy silk, Tha the first reaction.
Later ones, however, include a certain discrimination and critical discovery that the subtle quality dwelt lovingly upon by fashion writers, {tines is non-existent. At this stages one may, bea little scandalized at the raauves and pinks, at the apricot {and blues which the embroidery tail Yor has seen fit to emball ith {full many a design, But the she, per will each her last stage of reac.
us in due course.
'Then she will probably decide that, time sufficient, a little patience wi bbe an extremely dangerous thing in "that it give her the correct re-{sults which will encourage her [write her name in the shop-keeper' order book more frequently than she had originally: planned.
With a little perseverance.she {can have a confectioned embroidery' pattern de-natured, until it. resem-{bles the kind of daintiness which she knows makes a good half of th ward show," whether really evident or not. She can persuade the t to come to hee house and do the necessary measuring to give the ro-quired results. And she need never: fear at the end of this delightful indoor sport to find the romance gone out of her garments, as. must. "fon be the ease with hastily bought Yates Road things taken back to a [round the world ship by. the lady tourist whose instinct for handiwork [at a moment outweighs ber better Judgment thereof.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.