BUYING AT SALES

Horowhenua Chronicle, 28 March 1916, Page 2

BUYING AT SALES

iIKAL BARGAINS IN PARIS. ~,, Fans, Jan. i 4. ■Ihe bargain sales in Pans Have beon a. success tliie season, and at (some of the best known dressmakers' the trade has beon fast and turious. Tailormades and evening "dresses have sold like the proverbial hot cakes, and the prices that have been paid for thorn have been quite good, (froin tile tlressiiijiJccrs' point of view, naturally). In ordinary times the model dresses m the big houses are not ot much use to the private individual, because they need so much "doing up." They generally pass through the hands of a cleaner and dressmaker and then they are put up for sale in those shops of second-hand dresses so dear to the heart of the touring American. iSy ■being shown all the season they have lost tlieir freshness, and sometimes iliey are quite norn audi shablby. n, is then that they are sold for'ridiculously low prices. Tine year, however, things have not been normal, and a great many dinner dresses of the more elaborate kind hare scarcely been shown at ad], with the result that they are * as fresli and pretty as on t¥ie d-.iy t'hov were first introduced to society.'These .have been snapped up as bargains by regular customers to the houses winch launched them, and lor £20 and £25 women have bought dresses which would have cost them double earlier in the season. ' A SPECULATION IX TA.TtXMIMADES. With evening coats and warm day coats the same thing hns happened, and tailor-mades have also been seized upon with eagerness at ha.lf their original price. Whether the speculation in ta-lor-nin-los is a <:■••■< c.-.m only be proved in -February when the new models come in. if the main ' lines do riot change, then the investment in a model or last season will be advantageous. If they do change then it is an unfortunate venture. it is rumoured that the skirts will be longer next season, b_ut that is of no great importance, because a braid or a iialse hem can put on an inch cr t*wo bo a skirt without changing,, its smartness. Jn all probability the bargains of last month will to be bargains and that is quite a wonderful thing to been dispensed with in war time, and the new dresses of last season were diown "in the hand" only. - Xow a dress "in the hand" is worth "two on the back" ( .to the bargain Hunter, as its hooks and its seams have not been strained and is folds unsoiled by wear. Kor £4 or £6 there are still pretty dresses to be bought in these secondclass houses whose running expenses and reputation do not call for exorbitant prices. Jlut buying bargains is a very uncertain benefit. It needs sure taste amdi a clear conception of needs. OtherAvise, we fall into certain folly. A dressmaker is to be pardoned" if she tries her best to get rid of a model that lias not had success; but the woman who allows her good taste and common-sense to be overruled by the efforts of the shop-woman is to bo blamed not pitied. To wear a becoming dress that is shabby is infinitely more satisfactory than to wear a new one that is not; yei several times lately I have watched women giving way to the temptation of low prices for positively hideous garments just be-

cause they were Tow in price. BUSINESS AND CREDULITY. will look like in them is not pleasant to imagine, for it is an amazing truth that the best of dressmakers can produce botih .beautiful and hideous models In the same season, and have the effrontery to tell .their customers that both are desirable, graceful and becoming. You admire their talent for bushiebi "'fri "so doing, bfi.t it is foolish to "believe them. Yet some women do; in fact, I believe we all do once in a lifetime, perhaps oftener. In the big shops bargain-hunting is rife. Blouses, dressing-gowns, petticoats, underlinen, useless little boxes particularly desigriel to littei , up the "•villa residence," photograph frames that stand crookecf, or more often iall down because they cannot stand at all, pincushions that nobody ever uses, tray t> that are cracked, carina that matches nothing you possess, and every possible thing for use or useueseriess, is offered under the legend "Soldes." The blouses, dressing-gowns andi under linen appeal most to the feminine taste, and around those counters in the afternoon the struggle is painful and hot. The blouses look limp beyond description, and many are almost wasted away before the bargain season ie over. The lingerie petticoats are very c!ieap, because they are narrow, and narrow petticoats are no longer fashionable. But the narrowness of a petticoat can be remedied. The most amazing umder-garmeute are produced in bargain time—purple silk pyjamas," , and every other under garment in materials so frail and transparent that gossamer threads seem substantial beside them. As to thedressing gowns, they are of "more than Oriental splendour," and the shoes to wear with them make you feel disagreeably Misloyal, even to look at. ■for they suggest the unepeakaiWe Turk and although the seller will glibly oai! them Japanese, you know better, or you think you do, for to be quite sure . where the East begins and where it ends in the so-called; Oriental rayons of the shop is not easy.