VANITY

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 72, 16 November 1931, Page 7

VANITY

FOOLISH TOMEN CAUGHT IN NET OF FASHION Published in the "Times." "Fashion, then etiquette, then convention, then vanity — see how women are caught in the net of 'fashion', which the dressmaker invented!" mused the bachelor judge, Mr. Justice McCardie, in the King's Bench Division to-day . He was continuing the hearing of the action in- which a firm of dressmakers, Martial Armand, Ltd., of Paris and London, is suing Mr. Gilbert Frankau, and his wife, for £265, balance of an account- of £630, for dresses supplied to Mrs. Frankau. "Why," the judge asked counsel, "cannot a lady in Mrs. Frankau's position wear the same froek to visit a friend as she wore when she received her friend?" Mr. Werninck (for the plaintiff firm) : I understand that it is not etiquette. I suppose it is vanity. The Judge went on: A husband is not entitled to say that he is going to dress like a miser himself, and that his wife rnust wear old clothes when she visits her friends. A husband, in law, must adjust himself to the etiquette created by the dressmakers, the designers, and society generally. Mr. Werninck submitted that Mr. Frankau had not fixed limits to his wife's expenditure. Mr. Justice McCardie: A husband must be careful in his phrases. If he says, "My dear, I give you £500 a year. You must be a good little woman, and not spend more," the wife may, possibly, comply. If he says. "There's £500. I prohibit you from exceeding it," there will be an end to matrimonial bliss." Judgement was reserved.