SMUGGLERS’ SECRETS

Hokitika Guardian, 21 March 1932, Page 8

SMUGGLERS’ SECRETS

TRAFFIC OF DRESS PIRATES

LINGERIE IN WALKING STICKS

HOW MODELS ARE COPIED;

. British Customs officers have been making a great dri've among West End dressmakers in order to discover those who are smuggling in Paris models duty free. Already their efforts have brought in hundreds of pounds to, the Exchequer, and much more will follow. Society women who have lent their aid to this evasion of the law (by bringing in new frocks among their personal luggage) will also be sought out and punished. Yet, important though this drive may be, it marks merely the beginning of an attack upon an international organisation which- has been created solely to put original Paris models upon the London and other markets at prices Jess than a quarter of those charged in the city where they were created.

SPIES IN WORKROOMS.

Even if all these dresses were admitted duty free, it would still be impossible in the ordinary way for them to be sold at the .prices ruling at many shops to-day. To get the good- - across the Channel is only a small part of the activities of the dreas

smugglers or “pirates a la mode,” as they are called. The first task is iu secure the model, or, failing that, advance information which can be used by dress copyists throughout the world.

j Though wealth, a detective organisation and every device that forethought j can contrive is arrayed against the | thieves, this piracy still continues. In j the workrooms there is constant sux- ' veillance, for it is thence that the , most valuable secrets escape—in the I form of canvas patterns. With one of j these, the pirates out the finished article and have it on the market,well ahead, of the real producer. The work girls sometimes stripped and searched before being allowed te leave the premises, but even so by choosing a favourable moment they often manage to escape with the “spoil.” j When it is remembered that the: ! highest-paid seamstresses gets only £2 10s a week, and many less than £l, , it will be understood how great is the I temptation. A daring action was 1 recently carried out by fashion pirates, j One of the leading houses supplied a certain client with specially-designed models. This woman, in addition to being rich, was a valuable advertisement for the house, for she moved in the highest circles.

BRIBERY OF VANMAN. •

Some time ago one of the exclusive gowns made for this woman appeared in the window of a London shop only a few days after the original had been delivered tp its rightful wearer. It was only after the procedure had been repeated that the secret was discovered —and then only by -the merest chance.

It was noticed that the delivery van way away nearly an hour, though the client’s house was only a few minutes’ walk. A detective found that scarcely had the van turned the corner than it stopped to pick up a man who quickly disappeared into the inside. When tracked this man proved to be an expert copyist, who was able to open the parcel, carefully memorise-the frock, make a note of its salient characteristics and repack it, and make his escape while the vanman, who had been bribed, went by a circuitous route to the client’s house.

This is only one of the devices employed by the fashion thieves. Equally ingenious are the methods employed for smuggling them across the Channel. Often a beautiful piece of raw material is used as the lining of an old and shabby fur coat. Spare wheels on cars make excellent receptacles for dresses or materials, and it is known that inside of a walking stick a set of the finest lingerie has been packed.