Fabulous Sums Spent on Dress

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 23, 27 January 1934, Page 7

Fabulous Sums Spent on Dress

■ ''There; seem still to be some big American incomes left,'' said " X," most famousof London's dress designcrs,tq a, writer in- the "Cape Times." "iErincess 'A' has just been in. She was .one-of the dollar princesses when she;married that Frenchman, you know. She; has just spent:£l7,ooo w ith me." "On'ivvhatf " I gasped. I '■'. " said the man who understands rich wonien, and caters for them. ''A few furs, of coursb. I am making her a very nice coat for two thousand guineas." ■ Well,: that's the way things go in the • ultra-fashionable section of the fashion' business—the world's1 biggest business, worth more than £1,000,000,----000 a. year, and heading the list for advertising expenditure. I" have been told on good authority that the former Barbara Hutton, now Princess , Mdivani, is worth around £50,000 a year to the fashion factories. Many hundreds of wage-earners would be worse off, or out of a job if she decided to do with "just a few little frocks" henceforth. But there are numbers of women who spend' (or whose husbands or admirers, spend) a thousand or, more a year on their clothes. £10,000 A YEAR ON DRESS. The beautiful Irene Castle (in private life Mrs. McLaughlin) admitted' once to spending £10,000 a year on dress; and if thirrgs like annual purchases of jewels and beauty accessories and the fees-for the attentions of manicurists, hairdressers, and so on, were included, it is probable that the total bill for adornment would be several thousands higher. These.arc, of course, exceptional expeiklitures.But it 'is a fact that women, taken as a:.'whole, are more extravagant in expenditure on persona! adornment than at any other period in history. Statistics relating to the sale of beauty preparations last ye'ar.sliow that nearly:200,000,000 boxes of face powder and 50,000,000 sticks of carmine for reddening lips were.l)ought; while in the last five years the number of hairdressers/ specialising in; waving, shingling,, and curling women's hair has quadrupled; the number,of:manicurists' salons has trebled, and beauty parlours, a,new luxury, which cater for every woman,-but all the same can be very expensive, have sprung up like mushrooms'in'every big city.

Smart young- from America think nothing of paying y3OOO

guineas- for a fur coat in' London or I Jaris, anil.£3o,ooo for a-..two-inch wide flat .platinum bracelet ..encrusted, with diamonds. Very wealthy women of the smart sets ,of London, Paris, New Ifork, and Buenos Aires will pay' £5 a time for their shimmering silk stockings—gossamer things which .haye'-.a brief .gnat's life.', • • ■•IK THE LTJXURY SHOPS. ' Evening clothes are trimly severe and elegant now, .but- what they lose- in; eKpensiyc furbelows; they make up in costlyrenibroidery- and such, garnishings as strings of-smallprecious stones sewn on. ' -..'': \ :'..'■ ■' ' . ■ ,■-.-■ ' In;.the Juxury shops, of the Kue de la Paix'andxßond- Street they are showing the latest; glove—ra gauntlet affair of white ■kid •< seemed neatly -about • the .wrist.ty. a/thin-'band-of gold set with jewels. For a. carved ivory sunshade with". a "big ". ruby set in ■ the stump handle, ]3ve-can pay anything from' £50 to ; £500; even her, plain little ha,t, with'.a'single little diamond pin Orna,ment set'jauntily at the side, can cost somebody £200:. , , ...

: Luxiirjrwomenrspend as much, if not more today.: on the accessories as they spend-on tactual frocks and hats. If Eye .'• is , smartly • turned out she must have the. right etceteras.' : ■

Fifty: thousand pounds a year dresses are rare, since the, supply of millionaires .is 'limited; but I am. assured that there : aria; thousands of women in England, tens of thousands in America, and hundreds,in Paris,-and thousands again inYSouth. America,: who" spend from £1000: to: £3000 a year on their apparel- and adornment and1 grooming.

.But gay spenders who keep the great fashion business going ,are not limited to the 'World: of the fashionables and the millionaires, .the' Cleopatras, Ninon de-l'Enc-los, and dv Barry's of today. Women of all classes are spending more on their adornment, and mill girls and typists insist on their artificial silk stockings and their beach pyjamas.