BILLS OF A LADY OF FASHION

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9334, 2 January 1909, Page 6

BILLS OF A LADY OF FASHION

£2400 A YEAR FOR DRESS. Mrs Howard Gould’s demand in the New York Divorce Court for £30,000 a year alimony, is characterised by English authorities as excessive, even for the wife of a wealthy American.

The late President of the Divorce Court, when Sir Francis Jeune, laid it down that it was possible for a woman to keep up a position ia London society on an income of £2500 a year. This was the sum allowed Mrs Beecham, wife of the famous pill proprietor, whose income was stated to be £BO,OOO a year. Mrs Beecham’s protest that she could not afford a box at the opera or a winter at Cannes on £2500 a year met with no sympathy from the judge. The £40,000 per annum alimony allowed by the French Courts to the Countess Castellano constitutes a record; but the countess, as Miss Anna Gould, had brought great wealth to he aristocratic husband. Mrs Gould’s “list of necessaries” was subjected to expert analysis, with the following result The allowance of £2OO a month for the rent of an apartment and its furniture, said a West End house agent, would be excessive for London. Even in the season a wellfurnished house in the fashionable district can be rented for from £25 to £3O a week, and if taken for a whole year the rent would be less. Housekeeping bills, allowing for a staff of servants and a certain amount of entertaining, shored not exceed £25 a week—about 50 per cent, less than Mrs Gould's estimate —said a stores manager. The cost of living, however, is lower in London than in New York I For dress £2400 is a heavy allowance, remarked a well-known dressmaker. Some of the best-dressed English women spend less than £IOOO a year on their frocks, including their Court gowns. The £2O a month for hats and veils, observed a milliner, might be reduced by 20 per cent. The English society woman, living alone, would not find it necessary to employ j butler, cook, housemaid, lady’s-maid, kitchen-maid, coachman, glooms, stablemen, and chauffeur, said a Mayfair registry-office keeper. Such a staff as she would require could be supplied for £325 a year—about one-fourth of Mrs Gould’s estimate.