“Hmm...”
After finishing my meal and returning to my room, I began pondering how I was going to accomplish the tasks Mother had assigned me.
Or so I’d like to say, but in truth, I was just sitting at my desk with my head buried in it, staring at a sheet of paper without doing much of anything.
I couldn’t help it. Nothing was coming to mind.
Especially when it came to the maid uniform.
I had a vague idea of what to do with the butler uniform, but with the maid uniform, I had no idea what to touch.
“Young Master.”
As I kept diligently dotting meaningless specks on the paper, Emily, who had pulled a chair nearby and was sitting there, narrowed her eyes and called to me cautiously.
“What?”
“May I ask why you’ve been stealing glances at me for a while now?”
“Was I?”
“Yes. Our eyes have met at least once every ten seconds.”
“Huh...”
It had been an almost unconscious action.
I was probably so frustrated that I couldn’t keep my eyes still.
I set the pencil down on the paper, leaned back in my chair, and looked up at the ceiling.
“After you left the dining room, Mother gave me two missions.”
“Not a scolding?”
“She scolded me too. Anyway, she gave me two missions, and I said I’d gladly do them.”
“Yes.”
“But once I actually sat down at my desk, I had no idea what to do, so I can’t even get started.”
“Where are you stuck?”
“The maid uniform.”
“What did Madam say?”
“Mother said the direction of the maid uniform was ambiguous and told me to fix it, but in my eyes, the maid uniform is perfect.”
“So the reason your gaze kept turning toward me was...”
“I don’t know what to fix.”
“......”
Emily lowered her head.
Did Emily not have an answer either?
“Haa...”
I sighed and rubbed my face with my palm.
For now, whether it was a change of mood or sleep, I needed something to clear my head.
“Tch...”
Clicking my tongue lightly, I rose from my seat.
“Uuuungh...”
“Um, Young Master.”
“Hm?”
As I stretched with both arms reaching up, Emily, who had been looking down and examining her own clothes, cautiously called to me.
“What is it?”
“When is this outfit meant to be worn?”
“Why, when receiving guests.”
“I see.”
Emily lifted her head with a smile and met my eyes.
“In that case, to my eyes, there seem to be about two problems.”
“What?”
A minute at most.
She had found two problems in that short span of time, when I hadn’t found anything after thinking for dozens of minutes.
As I stared blankly at Emily in surprise, she gave a triumphant smile and pointed to her chest with her finger.
“First, the buttons used to fasten the clothes should either be moved to the back or hidden.”
“Why?”
“Madam once said that with dresses, the beauty lies in buttons and laces not being visible. If you’re curious, take a close look at Madam’s or the Young Lady’s dresses.”
“But the clothes you originally wore had laces in the front.”
“Ours are covered by aprons, and most importantly, we have no reason to stand in front of guests.”
“Ah.”
I had been thinking too complicatedly on my own and had missed a small, trivial detail.
I felt like I understood why Mother had told me to discuss it with Emily.
“Ha... Then what’s the other one?”
Feeling hollow at the realization that I’d wasted time digging myself into a hole, I let out a dry laugh and asked about the other problem Emily had found.
Then Emily pointed to the ends of her sleeves and the nape of her neck.
“The collar and cuffs should be detachable.”
“Why? Wouldn’t that make it more inconvenient?”
“Because they’re hard to wash. You can’t wash the entire outfit every time the sleeves or collar get dirty.”
“But having them attached is prettier, and more...”
“Then will you be doing the laundry, Young Master?”
“......”
I shut my mouth, avoiding Emily’s eyes as she glared fiercely and answered sharply.
What could I say when the person doing the housework said it would be difficult?
The way for someone in a high position to survive long is to listen to the voices of those below them, so I gave up being stubborn and apologized at once.
“Sorry. I’ll make them detachable.”
“Thank you.”
At that, Emily’s expression quickly softened, and she bowed her head in thanks.
“Is there anything else besides that?”
“Mm... For the headwear, wouldn’t a hair cap be better than a hairband?”
“Ah, for that, they’ll wear what they originally wore. The hairband is something only you get.”
“Uh... In that case, I don’t think there’s anything else.”
“Really?”
Then the parts I needed to touch were the buttons, sleeves, and collar.
It didn’t seem like it would take that long.
If I got started quickly, I could finish it before noon.
I pointed toward the dressing room with my thumb and said,
“Then go change so I can alter it right away.”
“Yes.”
_
Thanks to Emily, once the part I’d been stuck on was resolved, the work progressed quickly.
“Emily, the clothes you were wearing smell nice.”
“... Young Master, please show a little consideration to women.”
“Ah, sorry...”
The alterations began under Emily’s icy glare.
“How should I make the cuffs?”
“I’d like them to be about half a handspan long. That way, they can keep the clothes from getting dirty. And I’d like the collar to cover at least half the neck.”
“Got it. Anything else?”
“Mm... Could you make them stiff? So they hold their shape well.”
“As long as I have fabric for interlining, I can.”
First, I used the cloth left over from yesterday to make detachable collars and cuffs.
“You’ll need to attach at least two buttons so they don’t come off easily while we’re working.”
“For the collar, two above the collarbone. For the cuffs? Along the circumference of the wrist? Or toward the armpit?”
“Please attach them toward the armpit.”
“Okay.”
Then I attached buttons to the existing sleeves and collar, making places where the collar and cuffs could be secured.
“If I add a strip like this, it won’t be uncomfortable when you button it, right?”
“At this 정도, I don’t think the fabric will get in the way.”
Lastly, I added a long strip of fabric along the line of buttonholes on the front closure, so that the buttons wouldn’t be visible when the outfit was fastened. With that, the issues regarding the maid uniform were finished before noon.
After neatly trimming all the loose threads I hadn’t managed to clean up in the morning, I rose from my seat and held up the altered one-piece dress.
From top to bottom, from bottom to top.
After moving my eyes over it several times to check for any final problems, I held the dress out toward Emily.
“How does it look to you?”
“Mm...”
Emily’s eyes narrowed, and her gaze moved busily.
In the silence, Emily examined the black dress as though dismantling and analyzing it, then gently curled up the corners of her mouth and left a simple comment.
“It’s perfect.”
“Really?”
“Then I should finalize this design for the reception maid uniform.”
“Yes.”
Now that the design was finalized, all that remained was to draw it on paper from three views.
I folded the dress neatly, handed it to Emily, and glanced at the clock on the desk.
Only a few minutes until lunchtime.
“Shall we do the rest after eating?”
“Yes.”
No matter what, meals were something one had to eat properly.
_
Unlike the maids, the butlers already each had a uniform.
That was because, unlike maids who did odd jobs out of sight, butlers already made appearances for all sorts of duties, such as attending their employer when going out, receiving guests, running errands, and serving at banquets or meals.
As such, there was no need to make new uniforms for the butlers, but what Mother had requested this time was a new uniform that “matched the maid uniform.”
So I intended to use this opportunity to divide the butlers’ uniforms into full dress and informal formalwear.
The clothes they had been wearing would be elevated into full dress for important occasions, while the newly made clothes would be something versatile, like a casual suit.
“I should make the butler uniform a tailcoat.”
“A tailcoat?”
“Yeah.”
So the item I chose for that was none other than the tailcoat.
To put it in terms familiar to us, an evening tailcoat.
If you’re picturing the outfit with two tails that butlers are always wearing in novels and comics, that’s the one.
The reason tailcoats came into being was, quite practically, because people wanted to move comfortably.
In Europe, even until the eighteenth century, coats that came down to the knees were like the formalwear of nobles.
The problem was that they were extremely inconvenient for knights who moved around often or for people who liked horseback riding, so the beginning of the tailcoat was when such people cut the hem of the coat to a suitable length so they could move more easily.
As you can tell from the reason it was born, the tailcoat was clothing worn for activity, but after going through all sorts of twists and turns, by the modern era it settled as formalwear for nobles. Then, as fashion shifted to other suits, the tailcoat became outdated clothing and ended up being worn by butlers.
Of course, it was still a dignified suit that could be worn as formal attire at important occasions, but all of that was from my previous world.
“Isn’t that something knights wear?”
“Yeah, that’s right. Nobles sometimes wear it when riding too.”
“I see.”
In this world, tailcoats were still being used as activewear.
That was truly a relief.
If tailcoats had been used as noble formalwear, I would have had to change direction to classic suits or tuxedos, and that would have left me feeling a little disappointed.
To me, a butler means a tailcoat, and when I think of a tailcoat, a butler comes to mind. That is common sense.
Denying such common sense was unthinkable.
“But Young Master, if it’s a tailcoat, you’ll have to make the coat, vest, trousers, and shirt as a set. Can you make both the design and the clothes within a week?”
“Well... I’ll have to do as much as I can.”
“You’re not thinking of staying up all night to make them again, are you?”
“Haha, I’ll try my best.”
“So you definitely won’t, right?”
“Hahaha!”
“Ugh! Young Masteeer!”