PARIS FASHION SLUMP

Evening Star, Issue 20132, 23 March 1929, Page 22

PARIS FASHION SLUMP

FAMOUS FIRMS CICSiIiS THElil ATELIERS Fadiionabio dressmaking, the industry de luxe of Paris, is undergoing a severe <• i-'isis. Business during the summer has not been good, and prospects tor the winler arc bad igays an Hnglish paper). In spite of big cH'orts made by (lie " fash ion king'.’’ orders trnm rich cusfumers are scarce, and a number of famous firms have closed several of their "aloheis" and considerably reduced I heir slab'. Other;, who have big houses on valuable sites in the centre of the capital, are ere dited with the intention of closing (heir businesses and selling (heir buildings lo banks or business houses. The causes for (his serious crisis are numerous. Paris is the world's centre for dress ‘■creations,’' but fhe famous Barman linn? who create new models ate not pi elected against .dress pirates. New models are often circulated by American and German linns before they are shown in Paris. American firms, indeed, have come lo an agreement, for the purchase of models in Paris. They buy only a lew, and these are reproduced by all the members of the " ring!” Owing to high tariffs in other countrios and to taxes on exportation from France, foreign customers can obtain in their own countries reproductions of Parisian models ■much cheaper than if they bought them in Paris.