Nineteenth Century Woman Tailor

Shops selling imported fabrics, high-end domestic textiles, and fabric accessories were not uncommon in this era, especially in New York.

The red-brick building was adorned with white plaster trim and Roman columns on the porch, with wooden accents coated in a layer of varnish framing the doorway and windows, above which the shop's name was displayed.

According to the information published in the newspaper, this store was relatively affordable among high-end fabric shops.

Not far from the Leeds Hotel, Eloise walked straight here after getting off work. Although there was a tram she could have taken for this distance, she really didn’t want to spend the two cents.

Every penny had to be carefully budgeted.

Eloise exhaled deeply and stepped into the shop, feeling somewhat out of place as she navigated through the aisles to make her selections.

Middle-class housewives, who were currently most into embroidery to decorate their homes, usually slept in until late morning in their apartments, having their servants bring bread and tea to their bedrooms.

After their leisurely breakfast, they would dress up fashionably and take a carriage out to shop, preparing for the upcoming Christmas by selecting gifts for their families.

Eloise tried to keep a low profile.

She avoided a woman wearing a ginger-colored cashmere coat and a silk hat, sneaking glances at her outfit through the shop mirrors.

Then she walked further into the store.

The shop wasn’t large, with two rows of shelves and walls lined with fabrics rolled onto pine boards, measured in yards.

A male clerk was enthusiastically serving the woman in the cashmere coat, patiently explaining the different fabrics.

Eloise wandered aimlessly, her feet stepping on the black-and-white checkerboard marble floor, surrounded by the scent of cologne and a pot of lush green bamboo at her feet.

The fabrics on the shelves were mostly wool-based for winter: thick woolen cloth, velvet, tweed, and gabardine for military uniforms.

There were also satin and poplin from the Qing court, gauze and silk, and French linen. Knitted and woven fabrics varied in thickness and processing techniques, making it all a bit overwhelming.

What Eloise intended to make wasn’t something she could openly discuss. She mentally calculated the materials and decorations she needed, her eyes darting around.

Once the woman left, she approached the clerk and, without waiting to be asked, said,

“I’ll take a third of a yard of gauze, a third of a yard of poplin, and half a yard of cotton.”

“What are you making? Will that be enough? Why not take a full yard of cotton?”

The clerk’s attitude toward her was noticeably less enthusiastic as he gestured dismissively.

“No, just cut it like this,” Eloise said, pulling out a handful of loose coins from her pocket.

“Alright,” the clerk shrugged.

He seemed annoyed by such a small purchase, his face sullen as he grabbed a long pair of scissors, pulled out the fabric rolls from the shelves, measured them, and cut them into the sizes she requested, wrapping them in paper bags.

Poplin, which was essentially cotton, had a smooth, silk-like appearance. Due to the forced opening of Qing ports, its price had dropped, and a dollar could now buy a third of a yard. Gauze and cotton were domestically produced but still not cheap.

“That’ll be three dollars and seventy cents,” the clerk said, taking her money before handing her a larger paper bag to carry her purchases.

Such a small amount of fabric was far from enough to make a complex ladies’ dress, yet it had already cost three dollars and seventy cents, highlighting the high price of premium fabrics.

For ordinary people, having one new cotton dress per season was considered a sign of modest prosperity.

This was the first time Eloise had spent so much money since her arrival, and she felt as though she could finally breathe again. Upon returning home, she immediately started drafting her pattern.

What Eloise intended to make was a brassiere.

A few decades earlier, wealthy locals had favored corsets that cinched their waists to the size of a palm, paired with crinoline skirts, creating an inverted triangle silhouette.

Over the decades, corsets had gradually evolved to become softer, losing their straps and reducing the amount of stiff padding, though they remained somewhat rigid. It wasn’t until a decade or so ago that tailors in New York began inventing something closer to modern bras.

Eloise planned to make some more liberating modifications to this design.

By the time she realized it was almost four or five in the afternoon, she hurried out to pick up Bella from the girls’ school.

On the way home, Eloise asked Bella what she had learned and what she had eaten.

“The teacher taught me reading, spelling, and writing. For breakfast, I had bread and fried eggs, and for lunch, I had boiled white sausage. The teacher said I shouldn’t talk while eating, or I wouldn’t grow tall.”

The meals were decent, and Bella felt she could eat her fill. She thought this school was better than her previous one and was in high spirits, mentioning that she had made two good friends and that’s why she had been chatting in the dining hall.

Eloise was very pleased with this. Shortly after she and Bella returned home, Terry and Louise came back, each carrying an employee gift.

Eloise learned that Louise had received a box of tooth powder, while her aunt had gotten a bottle of olive oil. Remembering the bitter, sour chocolate she had received, Eloise couldn’t help but feel a pang of frustration.

However, her aunt’s colleague had given her a pack of homemade salted pork, fatty and rich. They fried it in a pan until the fat rendered out, leaving crispy cracklings.

Eloise and Bella helped knead the dough, while Louise shredded some radishes. Her aunt rolled out the dough, stuffed it with the cracklings and radish shreds, shaping them into something resembling dumplings, and then fried them in the pork fat until golden brown.

With one bite, the salty, savory flavor burst forth, with the radish shreds cutting through the richness. The radish, having been frozen in the snow, released a sweet, juicy flavor when eaten.

This recipe had been shared by a young French-mixed girl, for whom Eloise had washed two pieces of clothing in exchange.

That evening, Bella suddenly lost a tooth, and Louise, intrigued, began telling her a story about the Tooth Fairy, the two of them playfully roughhousing on Eloise’s upper bunk.

Eloise stayed up late working on her project.

Her aunt was already fast asleep by the time Louise finished washing up and came upstairs. Seeing Eloise fiddling with something, Louise asked, and Eloise explained that she was planning to make brassieres to sell at a boutique.

Louise was impressed, knowing full well that the boutiques Eloise mentioned sold items that could easily cost a week’s wages.

Seeing that Eloise could now venture into this business, Louise thought how useful it was to have a skill. As she undressed and got into bed, Eloise stopped her.

“Could you try this on and see how it feels?”

She handed the brassiere prototype to Louise, who was more developed, to try on.

It wasn’t particularly avant-garde, lacking inner padding and layers, but it had a basic three-dimensional shape. Louise found it much lighter and shorter than the corsets wealthy women wore under their dresses, with many differences in detail.

She thought the shaping was well done but noticed there was no padding inside.

Hearing Louise say it felt comfortable, Eloise felt more confident.

They all went to bed peacefully, and the night passed without incident.

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