THE CAPRICE OF FASHION. WOMEN'S HUNGER FOR NOVELTY AND THIRST FOR CHEAPNESS.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 194, 12 March 1887, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE CAPRICE OF FASHION. WOMEN'S HUNGER FOR NOVELTY AND THIRST FOR CHEAPNESS.

London, January 14. The following article, communicated to the •' Daily News" by a well known commercial traveller, has created considerable sensation, and been quoted far and wide. The facts it exposes are undoubtedly true. One cannot walk down a big shopping thorough fare enjoyably in London or the provinces (by which, ot course, I mean a large town in the provinces), without realising that middle-class feminine passions for novelty and cheapness are doing incalculable mischief. Almost everything a certain sort of woman wears nowadays coats "four pence throe farthmgs " or " one shilling and elevenpence," or some such stuff. Her 14 get up" is flimsy, unsubstantial, pretenaious, and one mass of i nutation. Imitation lace, imitation fur> imitation velvet, and fal-'G hair. Everything that can be imitated by something cheaper and less durable is imitated. Even the humble flannel has not escaped. "Aa we write," says my friend of the " Daily News," " huge stackp of a poverty-stricken article called "flannelette" are being shown and sold at 3^d a yard, the mere ap pearance of which is calculated to make every orthodox piece of white flannel in the country blueh flaarlot " N. B. These counterfeit stuffs always boast protensious name 3. No one would care to wear o petticoat of falso flannel, but " flannelette !" a petticoat of flannelette sounds quite smart Many men, I think rightly, are making a set against their women folk wearing imitation stuffs, &c. "My daughters," I heard a paterfamilias say the other day, "wear comfortable cloth tailor-made dresses I pet. my face asrainat plush, velveteen and all sneh abominations. They have a few good fur?, not sables, perhaps, but genuine, un dyed fur. andthelittle jewellery I allowthera I take cure ie good of its kind." With these '"e\v words of introduction, I leave the commercial traveller to speak for himself. "The fashion of the present day is char acterished by a hunger for novelty and a thirst for cheapness. Each season the various markets are flooded with some new article of feminine adornment, whose merits or demerits are in every person's mouth. Unhappily its reign is generally brief, and at the expiration of the short spell of power the remnant is thrown on ona side, to be taken down afe half, or perhaps quarter, its original price, at the noxt stocktaking Sometimes the novelty ultoge-her hunga fire, as in the case of the lace— a mixture* of silk and wool— intro ducad into the London markets iv the autumn of hist year. A few weeks sufficed to show that the public did not take kindly to the new article, and by the close of the year the goods might have boon purchased at half the original cost. When the history of ribbons comos to be written, it will bo found that their career, like other and more important things, has been somewhat checkered. Until a year or two ago they had ceased to find favour ia the eyes of the public, and the stockß of that article in factory, warohouse, and shop diminished not. Suddenly the ribbon trade leapt into importance, and everybody wanted that pretty article in a hundred different colours. Whence arose thi* sudden demand? Because some ingenious manufacturer conceived the happy idea of embellishing the edges of the ribbon with a loop of silk. The idea was developed, and ribbons with a picot edge became the order of the day. Again the old experience repeats itself. Coventry can manufacture ribbons unrivalled for durability and excellence of workman&hip ; but for diversity of design, fancy, and taste we must turn our backs on England. Of course there are exceptions, but as a general rule the truth is forced upon us that the artistic touch is not the Briton's birthright. A nation's character may be read in the very boxes in which the goods are packed. Those ire.m abroad are of such a light and flimsy description that they generally fall to pieces at the journey's end. Their work is accomplished, and they disintegrate themselves. But the solid English boxes arrive at their destination so carofully roped and screwed that the task of opening and unpacking is one of considerable labour. "There iano limit to the caprice of fashion, and no logical reason can be adduced why ib should accept some and refuse other articles. For a time bandanas were allpowerful, and a coloured silk handerchief peeped from every third feminine neck. The fashion ceased, and now one may walk from Bayswater to Bloomsbury and not see half- a dozen. Last summer a cry arose from all parts of the country for "lace boas." Every small manufacturer hastened to turn out as many as possible, and within a few weeks the demand was supplied. A few weoks more and fashion would have nothing futther to do with them, and the warehouses were cumbered with useless stocks. Last month a cartload of these articles were sold for— well— 'twould not do to inquire too curiously. Some time ago such an innocent article' as a lady's fall or veil created much disquietude. Time was when it was customary to purchase these goods in a finished form suitable for immediate wear, requiring no cutting or shaping. But, one day, the other sex, for whose adornment so many of us devote our lives, discovered that a pieoe of net nine inches wide answered every purpose and was. more economical, The makers of falla were do-

posed,' and not manufacturers reigned in their stead Before the change, a certain warehouse had just laid in a heavy stock. These were packed away in parcels rele- , gated to the obscurity of a top floor, in hope that the whirl'glg of time would once more create a demand for them. But the opportunity never came, and here they remained a sad memorial of the fickleness of woman. Each succeeding stocktaking they were taken in at a reduced price, till one tine day somebody discovered that they wero of lees importance than the Bpaco they occupied, The parcels wero then opened, and the falls fell to pieces. li What becomes of the accumulations of bad Btocks that manufacturers are unable to dispoß© of ? Where are thoee moustrosi* ties in silks and pluehes and velvets that apparently owe their origin to some temporary mental disarrangement of the designer? They have been certainly sjld, but — to whom ? Perhaps the fetna^ relatives of one of Mr Stanley's dusky chiefs could ainwor the question. Or do Erain Bey 'a womanfolk grant the despised articles that recog* nition denied them here ? Nowadays the fashion in dress has left the main stream of plain serviceable articles, and wandered away into channels of strange stylea and queer combinations Th as, in the matter of imitation lacoe f a few years ago the public wore content to have tho goods in white and cream. But tho enirit of discontent was about, and a demand sprung up for laces in a ficelle colour, and ehade achieving the highest success whoao appearancewas most like a ball of string. Tiring of that novelty, the public calkd for other colours, and tuscan, apricot, coffoe, and beige followed in quick succession, while silk laces wore dyed in a'l the colours of the rainbow. Each season some one colour is pre-eminent, and the past fotv years have seen the rise and fall of pitik, crushed strawberry, heliotrope, and others for which suitable names have had to be iuveated. In the frilling trade aUo a great change has been taking place. Some few years ago the public were content with a plain lnse or tarlatan frilling in white or cream. Now the goode that cell are a combination of loop and band and cord, and must be dyed in beige, nankoen, ruauvo, pink, sky, cardinal, and dozens of other colours whose ugliness must be s?en to be believed. One reason for this csntinual succession of novelties is the eagerness of manufacturers to do bueineae. The competition is «>o keen that a maker i* in danger of going to tho wall unless ho can always be showing something fro s h. If one man does introduce a f-uccessful novelt}' id is immediately copied by a neighbouring manufacturer, and sold at a lower price. The copier is copied in hid turn, and so it goes on till the article is made of such poor material as to be almoati worthless. The imitations spoil the sale of each other, and of tho original it?elf, and the whole thing soon dies a natural death, without ever having had a cbance of being judged on its own merits. Kegis tration is of little use, as an ingenious manufacturer can easily so contrive his imitations as to make it without the pale of the patent laws. Last autumn a Nottingham firm introduced a new frilling, both pretty and effective, whfah at once hit the public taste The price Avas nineponce halfpenny a yard, and a card within the box notified that the design had been registered. The manufacturers also asserted that they would decline to supply any warehouse who sold the goods at leas than ninepencehalfpenn> a yar 1. Hut the precautions wero of no avail. Within a week a similar frilling was brought out and sold at 7£d a yard. It was copied again and pold at s^d a yard, then at 42>1, and finally dropped to 2d, where it stopped, as that was the lowest price in which, with the flimsiest material and the pooiest workmanship, a profit could be made. "The craze for cheapness is honeycombing every manufacture. Hardly one escapes. And this sigu of the times is co well understood that customers frequently refuse to purchase novelties on the plea, peifectly true, that in a week's time tho price will be lower. The reign of cheapness not only flourishes in the suburbs, but is gaining a firm hold upon the trade of the West-End And busineas houses which wiah to retain thair supremacy must forget their old traditions, and go with the times. We eeo tho old highly - respectable bueino*a houses of Pall Mall and elsewhere give place to tho flaring windows of Oxford - street, and the aggressive shops of Westbuurno Grove Huge drapery emporiums riso right in the centro of the aristocratic quarter, and dames of high degree, standing without, compare tho shop window pricep, and haggle over the farthinga inside. This depreciation in tbo value ot dress and fancy goods is almost universal. The bulk sold is as great, if not [ greater, than any time during thB past ten years, but the returns show a lamentable decrease."