Dear Sir, – The Queen’s very real interest in the Nottingham lace trade, has done something towards reviving a grievously stricken industry. The charm of lace in feminine dress is undoubted, and the tiny business for the sale of the old-fashioned petticoats, which my daughter and I carry on, has shown signs of improvement lately.
I include among my customers several ladies, who, whilst wearing modern attire during the day, delight in donning the full lacy petticoats, and flowing robes of thirty years ago for a quiet evening at home.
The days when veiled, gloved and wasp waisted ladies came into my shop to choose laces for their gowns are of course gone, but I still visit the house of an old customer to supply her with the daintiest of laced petticoats for herself and daughter.
The latter is a stately girl of nineteen years and lives a secluded life with her mother and two maids. The maids have served the family for years, and wear long dresses, stiffly starched aprons, cuffs and caps. Both are provided with plenty of beautiful lacey petticoats, and their mistress always keeps them perfectly corseted and laced n as tightly as possible, especially the maid whose duty is waiting at table, and is tightly gloved for this as was customary years ago.
The old world daintiness of the two ladies of the house is something to wonder at. Both are tall and very slim. In the past I have fitted many wonderfully wasp waisted ladies with dainty lacey petticoats, but I may truly say that these ladies possess the tiniest waists I have ever seen.
The elder lady has not allowed her waist size to vary for many years, whilst her daughter, trained from early girlhood, has what may be almost called a natural wasp waist.
When she is actually laced in, her waist is so extremely tiny that even I who am used to seeing such marvellous figures, can scarcely credit such a circumference being possible.
Both ladies never wear less than four of the loveliest belaced petticoats, and all their dresses are laced and flounced. They are invariably very tightly gloved in black kid, with lace frills at their shoulders and move with every grace on four to six inch heels.
As might be expected, they have not adopted the short hair mode, and wear their tresses coiled to a great height on their heads. Their many pairs of stays are all lace covered and their handkerchief sachets are full of dainty lace trifles.
When I took tea with them recently they told me that they were each wearing silk fully flounced petticoats, and as I watched them, perfectly gloved, perfumed, painted and wasp waisted, rightly or wrongly, I decided that I had never seen anything so perfectly feminine.
Wishing you every success, sir, permit me to remain,
Yours very truly,
LACE LOVER