William Henry Baker compiles a comprehensive lexicon of the men's wear and tailoring trades, gathering raw and finished product descriptions, trade slang, and selling terms from across the industry. The text addresses the practical realities of the clothier, custom tailor, manufacturer, and haberdasher, attempting to make a vast array of technical subjects accessible without the dryness of an academic encyclopedia.
The volume spans definitions from A one to Zwingli, covering fibers, yarns, weaves, finished garments, and the specialized processes of carding, fulling, and finishing. Baker deliberately employs simplified spelling to pack the maximum amount of information into a compact compass, while consciously omitting pronunciation and grammar classes as superfluous for everyday trade workers.
Attention is given to the uniforms of military companies, naval services, and civic departments, detailing the precise specifications of full dress, undress, and service attire required by regulations of the era. The work relies on consultations with trade associations, textile mills, and historical costuming authorities to establish a reliable baseline of nineteenth and early twentieth-century sartorial terminology.
Throughout the pages, the text captures the argot and lingo emanating from the workshops and counters, preserving terms that eventually passed into general English usage. By organizing thousands of entries without illustrations, the author successfully constructs a functional, popular reference tool designed to assist professionals through transient daily needs without wading through wearying technical dissertations.
