CUFFS AND FLAPS

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 3251, 12 April 1943, Page 3

CUFFS AND FLAPS

then all will be happy

WHAT THE TAILORS SAY

.AUSTERITY SUIT REGULATION

“ Give us cuffs to our trousers and flaps to our pockets and then we will all be happy again, tailor and customer alike,” was the way in which onb tailor summed up the position, when his opinion was asked concerning the statement about austerity clothing made by the New Zealand Manufacturers* Federation. His summary epitomised the opinions of many others in the trade.

The austerity suit regulations respecting suit lengths were pointless, in that there was practically no saving of usefuL material, it was stated. In factor v-made suits there might he a small ’saving—an extra suit for every 60 or so cut—'but for the bespoke tailor with his suit lenjgth the regulations were tantamount to putting him out of business. It was also stated that the New Zealand regulations went farther than those in England; illustrations in English tailoring magazines definitely proved this. “It is cuffs to their trousers that men want, and they will have them,” remarked one tailor of how they got them by having their trousers cut an inch or so longer than usual and then having the ends turned up as false turn-up. “Men,” he said, “don”t want their suits to be unmistakably dated 1943 owing to the cuffless trousers, ■ and they won’t stand for it. Doublebreasting, extraneous buttons and suchlike things don’t .worry them nearly so much. But the cuffless trouser is an absurdity which they won’t tolerate—absurd in that whatever saving there is in material (and that is mighty little) is more than offset by the increased wear. The cuffed trouser definitely wears much better than the uncuffed one, and the latter when worn can only be repaired by shortening, a process which cannot be carried on for long.”

Bespoke tailors, it was also stated, had in their recent discussions with the authorities who had been responsible for drafting the regulations, conceded all the limitations except the trouser ,turn-up and the pocket flap •but their representations had not ■been listened to. They were hopeful, however, that there would soon be a, relaxation of the regulations in this direction. “Otherwise,” commented one tailor, “the present chaos in the trade will become confusion worse confounded.” Orders, it was stated, were rapidly falling-off and it was difficult to say what would happen, except that the man in a small way of business was facing extinction. An easier way to have arranged the

rationing of suits, suggested one tailor, would; have been to have allowed one special coupon for a suit, once a year or once every two years, and to have allowed this suit to have been made according to the customer’s wishes. This would have effected a far bigger saving in material than a number of irksome and unpopular restrictions, many of which were easily got round.