TT T ^ ' Book___x_i_b CopyiiglitN? CQE^EUGHT DEPOSIT. Copyrighted 1921 by The House of Kuppenheimer Chicago Tempered Clothing HI — an investment in good appearance Published 1921 by The HOUSE of KUPPENHEIMER ^1 . v\^ QGl 22 1921 C1A631583 Plate I ADMINISTRATION BUILDING B. KUPPENHEIMER & CO., CHICAGO Cloth refinishins^ department occupies one entire floor of this building The Idea Kuppenheimer Good Clothes make their great appeal through superior design and craftsmanship . Materials are usually taken for granted. It is true that any other clothing manufacturer can offer the same fabrics if he is willing to take the trouble. This is the story of supreme willingness to' 'take the trouble'''' and to lay the basis of honest materials for artistic tailoring. Why Kuppenheimer Clothing Is More Than Mere Clothing Foundations D ID you ever realize that most fail- ures in this world come from poor foundations? Of course you have heard in church of that house built upon the rock which stood firm while its neighbor built upon sand was swept away. And you have read of pyramids and fabrics which have resisted the ravages of forty centuries in Egypt. And the success magazines tell us of men who have shot up into fame because the testing time showed they were built of good stuff. But in spite of all this information and these preachments how much do you really know about "honest materials," 9 "solid foundations," and their relation to real and permanent values? How many sellers or wearers of clothing know any- thing definite about whether proper foundations are put into their clothes and how they are put there? It is a safe guess that to the average man cloth is cloth, nothing more. Just as pigs were pigs in the story — even if they were rats or elephants. He would think it unmanly probably to be a judge of fabrics or to know anything except his choice in style, color and price. The discriminating man is interested in know- ing what makes his soup so tasty or why the roast has such a wonderful flavor or how his wife makes her rolls so light; and no sane man would fail to watch the builders of his house to see that they put real cement in its foundation and sea- soned lumber into its walls. But to the subject of clothing — one of the three fundamental human needs — men ordi- narily bring much less understanding and informed interest than to either food or shelter. To be sure just now some men 10 are beginning to show an interest in fabrics. ''All Wool'' Most men have read or heard enough to be caught by the phrase ''all wool." What more could you want? What more honest? What more safe? Yet "all wool" is almost as vague a term as "democracy" or "cooperation." Said of any given piece of cloth it merely means that it contains no cotton or hemp or wood pulp or glass or asbestos or any of the other substances workable into cloth. That cloth may be entirely of reworked wool or it may be half new wool and half reworked, or any one of a dozen rates of mixture. Wool Plus Workmanship The real question after all is not merely one of wool but of textile work- manship: not merely what is put into a fabric but how. For fifty odd years The House of Kuppenheimer has been build- ing up the merchandising experience and critical judgment which enable it to 11 offer its customers the very pick of both foreign and domestic looms. Honest Value the Foundation of Style The average man has a pretty clear eye for sii/Ze, and the tailoring industry caters to that desire. But the honest clothier knows that all the style in the world can never take the place of real value as a basis for public confidence. While it is perfectly true that stage "properties" and the art of camouflage have achieved miracles of illusion, in the one case it is a trick of war, in the other it is frankly recognized and paid for as dramatic illusion. Sound business could never be run on that principle. Caveat emptor — let the buyer beware — belongs to the Stone Age of business. Every people has a proverb more or less to the effect that you cannot make silk purses out of sows' ears. The clothing industry accepts the proverb and trans- lates it thus: ''All the fine tailoring in the world can't make poor cloths stand up." This of course does not in the least 12 minimize the tailor's art. It merely em- phasizes the fact that distinguished and enduring craftsmanship can only express itself through sound and honest materials. The high-grade clothier sells style and perfection of finish. But style is like the unusual mind : coupled with constitutional soundness it becomes genius; with an in- adequate and unsound basis it degener- ates into queerness or downright craziness. Style on cheap clothing materials is in- solence and mockery; on sound materials it has the enduring and satisfying char- acter of real art. Rhinestones will never become diamonds no matter how carefully cut or set. The winner of a marvelous 'gold" brooch from the country fair "wheel of fortune" is lucky indeed if the gold hasn't all rubbed off in his pocket be- fore he reaches home. Cheap stylish cloth- ing has all the effect of a gaudy stucco palace at an Exposition Midway — grotesque, tawdry, evanescent. Honest style is like a fine old cathedral or chateau— noble in architectural design, solid in materials, conscientious in craftsmanship. 13 Kuppenheimer customers say that they can buy identical fabrics from other manufacturers, but that for some reason or other Kuppenheimer clothes after a period of wear look better and stand up better. The reason is two-fold: fine tailoring based upon solid fabrics. Fab- rics may superficially appear identical, named by the same name, made by the same loom, yet in the wearing prove to be incredibly different. Why? That's our story. ''Survival of the Fittest'' So cloth isn't just cloth. It may be made of either good, bad or indifferent materials. But taking even the best of cloth as it comes from the mills can the clothing manufacturer use it direct or must he work it up? Very little cloth as it is turned out of the mills is directly available for high grade clothing. To The House of Kuppenheimer it is really just "raw material," even the finest silk or worsted or cassimeres, which must be processed in a dozen ways before being 14 cut up or tailored. It must run the gauntlet. The law of the survival of the fittest rules treatment of the raw cloth as it rules the finished garment. Not partly fit, nor fittest occasionally, nor fittest in fine weather, but fittest in all weathers and under all conditions and circumstances. Man has been favored in the evolutionary process of half a million years not because he was some darling of the gods but because he could "stand up" under all sorts of circum- stances and adapt himself to new condi- tions or master them. Civilized clothing for civilized man must be built to meet a thousandfold more complex situation than ever bothered his cave-ancestors. ''Tempered Cloth'' Suppose we put it this way. Man has won out because he has been rightly tempered. All raw materials must more or less undergo this process of tempering or seasoning. We usually think of it only in connection with metals or wood or glass. But it is equally true or even 15 truer of clothing. Really fine clothing can be made only of highly tempered cloth. Not just cloth, nor all wool cloth, nor even virgin wool cloth, but tempered cloth. Tempered to meet varied needs. Some supple like a Damascus blade; some soft and fleecy ; some glossy like the flanks of a Vermont Morgan; some firm and virile like an Airdale; some smart; some care- fully neglige, some to suggest warmth, some sea shore coolness. Tempered to withstand sunlight and rain, the strains and stresses of vigorous manly life and the hard usage of amateur cleaners and pressers. Resu/ts Talk Results are supposed to speak for them- selves without too much inquiry into how and why. But the process, the how of it is always interesting, and to both the business man and the scientist may prove even more interesting and valuable. Knowing how a result is achieved protects the possessor of such information against fraud and deception. It gives him a key, 16 a check-up and a scientific standard for testing or comparison. The House of Kuppenheimer for fifty years has been proud to be judged by its results. Believ- ing that this long experience must have in it some intrinsic value for both science and sound business it proposes to go behind results and give some simple analysis of the tempering process which has contrib- uted to the fame of its product. As so often happens it will be found here again that genius is not magic but the capacity for taking infinite pains. The man who buys a Kuppenheimer garment gets not only clothing but in- surance. For every Kuppenheimer gar- ment carries its maker's guarantee. This guarantee or this clothes insurance is not a mere catch-penny advertising device. It is a genuine, real hundred per cent obligation upon the honor and resources of The House of Kuppenheimer. The only possible basis for this insurance is that "capacity for taking infinite pains" in the tempering and tailoring of the product. 17 .„ 03 l-l" •• C o C y. ^ " n '^'o ^ ^r. ••^ e en C U en .~ c U) Preliminary Examination Space and invested capital by no means tell the story of careful manufacturing. But they at least are hints. The present lay-out of the Kuppenheimer refinishing department represents an investment of over $100,000 and covers an area of over 12,000 square feet. This space is crowded with valuable machines, many of them de- signed and built especially to order. To this department is sent every inch of suitings and a considerable part of the trimmings which enter into the average garment. To begin with, every piece of suiting (woolen or silk or palm beach cloth) is given a preliminary examination by one of the greatest textile experts in the United States. Different pieces must be matched for color and shading, then checked up with mill samples for color, texture and quality. Later after being sponged and shrunk they are re-examined and ''re-shaded" to check up any new variations due to moisture or heat. Next every piece of cloth is "perched," that is, slowly unrolled under a special, 19 Plate III ••PERCHING" Inch-by-inch examination for defects in piece goods constant light and given an inch-by-inch examination by experts. They watch for shading (particularly in piece-dyed goods), for spots, "mill shots," unevenness of weave, weak places, cuts, holes and other defects. Each defect is carefully marked by sewing on a piece of white tape as a guide and warning to cutters. Shading is so variable that one end of a 50 yard piece may be considerably **off" the other. In such cases the piece must be cut in two or more sections of like shade in order to secure evenness of color in each garment. Running the Gauntlet Then comes the real running of the gauntlet. First, the light testy for cloth must show not only evenness but integrity of color. Small samples are hung in a special metal cabinet under the rays of an 8000 candle power electric light for fifteen hours. This is the equivalent of ten days continuous July sunshine. Formerly tests were made in the open air. One series covered a whole year on a roof in Chicago and in a selected spot at Palm Beach. 21 Plate IV LIGHT TEST FOR COLOR INTEGRITY Small samples of cloth hung on circular frame enclosing 8000 candle power electric light But the indoor light test has been proved much simpler, quicker and surer. Any fabric that survives this test is safely on its way through the tempering process. Yet here a word of advice may be offered in the interests of the "life-extension movement"as applied to clothing. Sellers and wearers of clothing should avoid leav- ing garments too long exposed to direct sunshine under glass in show windows or at home. Next the tensile test. A small sample of cloth is clamped into the two jaws of a machine. These jaws are spread apart by screw pressure which registers in pounds upon a scale. When the cloth finally splits or tears the scale is read and the figures noted. Certain standard strengths have been set up. For example, good worsteds should stand 75 pounds tension on the warp (i.e. lengthwise), 50 on the filling (crosswise) ; cassimere from 45 to 50 on warp, 28 to 32 on filling; mohairs 35 on warp, 22 to 27 on filling; Palm Beach cloths only a trifle less than worsteds ; silks much higher than woolen fabrics. 23 The test by abrasion is the most unique test (and the most recent, having been installed early this year). Of course it is impossible to predict with scientific accu- racy the exact life of any particular fabric, if for no other reason than the wide ranges of treatment it will receive by different wearers. But the abrasion test helps in comparing the resistant qualities of fabrics from different mills and is valuable in setting up at least a minimum of wear- ing quality under any ordinary circum- stances. The tester takes two strips of the same fabric. One is clamped firmly over a wooden half wheel; the other is stretched tight and pressed by heavy weights against it in such a way that when the wheel is set to rocking back and forth the two pieces will rub hard against each other. An automatic attachment registers the number of oscillations or rubs. At the end of a certain number of rubs the fabric is removed for inspection. This would represent, say, ordinary wear. A certain measured increase of the dose would quite outdo the hardest possible 24 treatment by an average customer. By experiment it will be possible to set up certain standards of wearing quality which must be met by the textile mills on such points as coat cuffs and elbows, pocket welts, trouser seams, strength of nap, tendency to shininess, changes in pattern. Of course, even the best of woolen cloth must not be asked to do the impossible. For example, there is a large demand for very soft fleecy overcoatings. They are graceful and luxurious to the touch and . beautiful to the eye. Designed to meet the requirements of those who favor these qualities, it would be futile and unfair to expect them to give also the same endur- ance and wearing qualities of the close weave, smooth finish fabric. Sweet and sour, soft and hard, the maiden's skin and the athlete's muscle cannot be combined successfully. With these reservations in mind, however, it is still fair to say thaK:, coupled with the light and tensile tests, this abrasion test gives the wearer the assurance that his cloth has passed a most rigorous inspection by the staff of "clothing 25 insurance" examiners. But that is only the beginning. The Tempering Process Once these preliminary inspections and sample tests are over, the real process of tempering (sponging, shrinking, finishing, shearing, pressing) begins. Of course all woolen fabrics are "finished" before leav- ing the mills. That is, after passing through the loom they must be ''scoured" (cleaned in soap suds to remove grease), and treated to give them density, com- pactness, pile or ''nap," and luster. When a fabric leaves the loom it looks like a plucked chicken; it is bare and harsh; all the strands show stringy, and the pattern is on the one hand too staring, on the other too foggy. The "finisher" puts on the feathers, so to speak, softens the rude lines and builds up a fibrous matted surface which not only improves appearance but adds to wearing quality. Incidentally this scouring and fulling and raising process shrinks the cloth considerably. But in spite of all the mill processing the first class clothing manufacturer per- 26 Plate V COLD WATER SHRINKING PROCESS (I) Cloth passing through cold water vat (in fore- ground), then over rolls and into hot-dry-air chamber (background) sists in treating the mill product as "raw," and proceeds to temper and refine it still further. A merchant tailor said to a customer recently, "Oh, but we cold water shrink all of our cloth !' ' As if that were all of it, and as if to imply that ready made clothiers couldn't or wouldn't indulge in any such extravagance of craftsmanship. But it is safe to say that there is not a single merchant tailor in America who has one quarter of the equipment or who can give a fraction of the care exercised habitually as a matter of routine by The House of Kuppenheimer or any other of the large manufacturers of high grade men's ready to wear clothing. Cold water is the smallest part of this refining process. Here again the nature of the material and the effect desired determine the treatment. All worsteds, for example, are run through a bath of cold water, then rolled tightly on wooden rollers (crabs) and allowed to stand for a couple of hours to become thoroughly and evenly moistened ; 28 :i^i}Jr^ Plate VI COLD WATER SHRINKING PROCESS (II) Cloth coming out of hot-dry-air chamber (back- ground) ready to be re-examined and steam sponged then they pass through a hot- dry-air chamber which removes not only the sponging water but also atmospheric moisture. An ordinary 14 oz. worsted requires about twenty minutes for this drying process; other weights in propor- tion. All mohairs and palm beach cloths also are treated to this wet sponge. What this means to the wearer may be judged from the fact that a 60 yard piece of palm beach cloth shrinks nearly two yards, or double the old hand method of shrinking. A piece of knitted overcoating has been known to lose seven inches out of fifty in width alone! Some fabrics are given a double dose of this treatment as a measure of precaution. It is not left to guess work, however, but to laboratory measurement. After spong- ing, a piece of the cloth is cut off and fitted exactly to a rectangular cardboard pattern about the length of a coat back or overcoat sleeve. Then it is sent to an expert presser who is instructed to man- handle it with his iron and wet rag. 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