Their Clothes Betray Them.

Otago Witness, Issue 2288, 6 January 1898, Page 54

Their Clothes Betray Them.

" Have you ever considered whether ifc is possible to tell a man's character by the suit he wears ? " asked a fashionable tailor of the writer with whom he was holding a few moments' conversation.

•'Possibly you haven't. Well, I can assure you that such a thing is possible. An intelligent man who knows his trade thoroughly can, in the majority of instances, sum up a customer's character with extraordinary accuracy — nob so much by the cub of his clothes, mind, but by his choice of material.

" I rarely make mistakes myself, and for the fun of the thing I often make inquiries for the purpose of finding out whether my conclusions are sound or not. Now take the case of a vulgar person. Nino times out of 10 a man of this stamp chooses loud garments. It is most x-are for a vulgar man of strong passions to buy quiet clothes for anything else but business purposes ; while, on the other hand, it ia very seldom indeed that you find a man of retiring disposition ordering loud checks.

" There are practically three classes of customers — the vulgarians, the persons of quiet habits, and the men who wish to make themselves felt wherever they go. These last, while not dressing at all extravagantly, almost invariably insist on having something out of the ordinary run. If you have a customer who evinces a desire to wear something different from anybody else, yon may conclude at once that he is a pushful man.

"Now with regard to ladies none of these rules will hold water. M> experience of ladies' tailoring is fairly extensive, but I am bound to confess that I've never yet been able to divine a lady's character from the dresses she wears."