AMAIDINMAYFAIR.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 230, 28 September 1929, Page 4 (Supplement)

AMAIDINMAYFAIR.

Vanity and finance. • ROBOT DOORS. (From Our Lady Correspondent.) It will be remembered that at Cowes the Kaiser won a race with Meteor IV. against the yacht Germania, belonging to his millionaire subject,. Herr Krupp, of shell fame. As a matter of fact, Germania would have won easily, but purposely passed the wrong side of the* stake boat when leading, and was consequently disqualified. It was not supposed to be good form to beat the "AllHighest," and Herr Krupp did not want to incur his' wrath or hurt his vanity. Incidentally, I hear that the total, already spent in trying to get back the 100-guinea. cup—the famous "America" Cup—is now well over £10,000,000. And the cup is still across the water! Despite the King's absence, there is a great deal of entertaining in and around Cowes this week. Big house parties fill Belmont, Nubia House, Castle Hill House, East Cowes Castle, and Hamlet Lodge. No gardens are more beautiful than those of lavenderscented Carisbrooke Castle, the residence of Priw.-ess Beatrice, Governor of the island.

MEN'S RACING CLOTHES. One of the surprises at Goodwood was the rather careless way in which men dressed. . The Sussex meeting is very much, a country function, where men wear what they please and where' the absence of spats causes no comments, but last week the sterner sex seemed to feel that their second-best lounge suits would fit the occasion very well! A score, perhaps, of the smart racing set looked. their immaculate selves, and Lord Lascelles, Princess Mary's husband, set a very high standard. He is always perfectly turned out, and not only wears well-cut clothes, but pays great attention to the etceteras of dress. Sir John Benjamin-Jardine, considered one of the best-dressed men in society, was immaculate, too, but a great many men looked really shabby by the side of wives in smart autumn tweeds and new hats.

PRICE OF BEAUTY. It is distinctly amusing to note how gallantly serious highbrows like Dr. Marion Phillips, M.P., and Mrs. Theodore Cory, the novelist, defend their sex against a charge of monstrous extravagance. The pretty story is that last year women spent, f65,000,000, apart from dress, on make-up and hairdressing alone,' which is considerably more than the country's motoring bill. The items include £40,000,000 for lipstick, powder, and lotion, f 12,000,OU(i for hairdressing and an additional £2,000,000 for permanent waving. These statistics are, in the current jargon, "simply shattering,"- but are they correct, I doubt it. Because I put to a West End beauty specialist the very nmch smaller sums adduced in the same quarter as the year's profits of different beauty firms. The answer I goi was an emphatic assurance that these were grotesquely exaggerated. I imagine the same applies to the larger items.