Yesterday I had been reading yet another late Victorian tailoring manual, and this morning I was telling @Diego Roversi about the part when the author claims that there are some measurements that would be useful do draft certain garments, but a (male, of course) tailor can't take them on a female customer, and there are ways to guess them. But at least in one case, he suggested doing the obvious thing, and just ask the customer to have her husband or maid take the measure.

And I commented that everybody who was buying cycling or riding trousers from a tailor was living with a husband, or a mother, or a sister, beside having a maid.

Unless she was unmarried, and only had brothers, and her mother had died (while giving birth, of course) and she was running her father's house because he had not remarried yet.

Or even, she was unmarried, only had brothers, she was running her father's house because he didn't want to remarry and she was quite happy with the situation because she didn't want to marry herself but wanted to keep living with that very close friend (but just a friend!) who had been living in their house for quite some time now. But then, her not-a-lover could very well take her inseam measurements.

Things escalate quickly, right?