The Iron-Molded Suit: When Tailors Pressed Clothes Onto Your Body
A bizarre new fashion trend in Seattle has women wrapping themselves in hot irons to 'mold' their suits into shape.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Novel Scheme of the Tailors.
SEATTLE, June 17.—The buds and matrons have discovered a new tailor here. His coats and gowns are how they do not look at all like a furor is test, but moment the iron is pressed to make the aura look like correctly formed man. The town is made, in fact, and almost finished, when a new and original scheme is launched into play.
The customer is wrapped in long, wet wool cloths—they are known as 'shrels'—and the new tailor-made gown is put on. Then, over the hips and shoulders, around the waist, and up and down in carefully arranged lines, the hot iron is passed. Instead of one presented on a steam, the suit is pressed as if it were herself.
Oh, yes, to be sure, the hot vapor rises, and the woman often cries out in alarm lest she be parboiled here and there, but such matter is trivial compared with our own true and substantial and beautifully, and so we have a style that is actually worth wearing. The figure is really molded to fit inside it.
The woman is instructed that she must keep the press on until the seams are ironed. It is so lovely that it is with difficulty she is induced to take it off. To be blessed with a near arrangement that an expert tailor of one's esteem will, never a single time or curve lost or out of place, is very excellent for even the curvatures of women. The result is everything that is graceful and lovely.
The man who is responsible for this new and unusual departure in the way of gown making is Kaslith K~*i* an Its Bar* I ha. I the Prince of Wales was his inspiration for Sh. Initial attempt aloes this line About year a» lh* young man who .frSrtniaia*,1 ths Ids* ramr h*r* l.i •mil 1! Into prattle*. Hi., |„>u w-o --men never yet hay. had th* ,ps*sr>r unity f twin* molded Into Ihelr gowns In this manner
The hot iron, then manipulated by hands la-less suns and steady than those of the young designer, is likely to be a dangerous instrument. Just the correct degree of heat and form, and no more, will be obtained, for this reason it is not probable that the present pressure-molding will ever become general among the daring at least workers. The process has been made fast in Chicago, and as many as 20 women at time are waiting in the tailor's rooms to be 'pressed.'
While modern tailoring relies on steam presses and mannequins, this 1899 account of 'iron-molding' garments directly onto the body highlights an era where fashion was physically demanding and potentially hazardous. It serves as a quirky reminder that today's comfort-focused activewear is a far cry from the rigid, heat-intensive silhouettes of the past.
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