£500 FOR PEERESS'S ROBE AND GOWN FOR CORONATION

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 82, 23 April 1937, Page 11

£500 FOR PEERESS'S ROBE AND GOWN FOR CORONATION

No one has worked out yet what vast sunns, apart from the sum which the actual eeremohy will cost the Treasury, will be set in cireulation during the coronatio (says a London corresi pondent). I' am told that skilled needlewomen are at a premium. Reville, working on coronation robes and d'resses for °the great ladies oi England, is met . with eager responses from the girls who acfcually waiit to work overtime. Hartnell has had to set a. whole new workrooiti in action. "They all love doing it. The girls wlio are working ou the Queen's gowns • or on gowns for Queen Mary are as «xcited as they eaii be,'/ I was'.tol'd. A peereSs told - ine that he'r co'roiiation gown ahd robe wero gdihg to cost more than £500, and she was not even a duchess, who has to. pay cnore, not Iiecause of her rahk, but because her robe is longer and more elaborate. A . baroness, at the lowest estimate, will pay more than £100 for her gown and tlie robe which she will wear. for a few brief hours at the ceremony at West•clnster Abbey on May 12. A peeress's robe must be of. criinson velvet, or of purpie .velvet if she is of Royal blood; her gown cntrst be white, cream, gold, or silver. She can, however, economise by having her robe hemmed with rabbit instead' of ermine. For a duchess chis rn'ay bring the cost of the robes down from more than 300 guineas to just over 100. The gold girdle and tassel alone cost £5. Her gown may cost £20 or £60 or £100; her coronet eight i5 or 25 guineas. •Her-shoes and gloves -must be' worthy of her gown and magnificent robes. • *

Sorne oi the peeresses are able to wear 'family robes, which are given more importance because of their aura of tradition. 'The Duchess of Wellington, for instance, will wear the robes which her mother-in-law wore. Add to tlie cost *of robes and gowp tho. cost of getting to the Abbey — some of the peeresses are • coining by barge down the Thames — the cost of Oouxfc gowns for the two Court balls in May, and. frocks i'or raees and garden parties. And althoegh Court gowns are being ordercd and work has begun on them already, no one seems terribly interiested in them just yet. They will be — after the coronation ceremony! At the momept everyone, from the girls who are working with skilful fingers on the embroideries for the Queen's gown and robes to the peeresses who 1'eel that £500 isn't too much to pay to be sure of being among the most splendid figures at tlie coronation, seems to be waiting for tho moinent when, coronets held over their heads, all these curiously uni-eal people will come to life and pay homage to a Queen who is being erownedl