THE PRICE OF A SUIT.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 January 1920, Page 6

THE PRICE OF A SUIT.

WHERE THE MONEY MOUNTS UP. IS'THERE COMFORT IN KNOWLEDGE? An item of cabled news recently predicted the possibility of an increase in the cost of a suit of clothes in. England to £2O, It did not say whether this would be a tailored or a ready-to-wear suit, but as it is already quite easy to find tailors in London who will charge £2O and more for a suit of clothes, it is probable the reference is to the ready-to-wear variety. How does this extraordinary price compare with the charges made in New Zealand for clothes ? An' Auckland commercial man who is in close touch withthe handling of wool, from the time it is bought till it is metamorphosed into a piece of finished worsted cloth, expressed the opinion that while the price mentioned .in the cable certainly sounded high, a great deal depended upon circumstances. English worsteds, he remarked, were much dearer than the New Zealand manufactured cloth, although the cloth made here was the equal of the English cloth for quality, and, in point of fact, is superior in actual purity, as no shoddy went into it of any sort. An English cloth cost the New Zealand tailor or clothing manufacturer about three times the price of the locally made article, and some of this had to be imported, as the mills in the Dominion were not able at present to maintain a supply equal to the demand. The consequence was that the tailor or clothier often pooled the materials, so to speak, and averaged up the« prices. Otherwise the ordinary customer would be likely to choose the cloth at, say, 13s a yard and leave the 33s stuff on his hands. The only advantage which the English-made article had over our own was in the variety of design, but with most buyers of suits now that would not compensate for paying more than double for the material. FROM SHEEP'S BACK TO MAN'S. Coming to the actual cost of this suit of clothes, he said that the cost of the wool off the sheep's back might be 20d per lb, and after treatment it would probably take about 21b of this wool to make a yard of cloth. The actual weight of wool that went to the yard was from 12oz to a little over a pound, but something likfe half of the original wool would be combed out in the making of the suitings because of being too snort. By the time the cloth was ready for the tailor the price of the wool in it had risen to roughly 13s or 14s per lb, that is to say a yard, and now the making of the suit itself is reached. He estimates this its follows: —Three and a-half yards of medium quality material at, say, las per yard, £2 12s 6d; trimmings, £1; wages, £1 10s; and distributing and other expenses at 20 per cent., £l. This brought the cost of the suit to the maker up to £fi 2s fid, and he would probably want to see a £1 profit on it, bringing the cost to the wearer to roughly £7 2s 6d. This, declared our informant, was a fair estimate for a medium quality ready-to-wear suit in NewZealand at the present time. What was known as a box suit would cost rather less, because such suits were turned otit in large quantities at a cheaper finish. As for a tailored suit, that depended on the tailor, who might charge for fashion, cut, and reputation. There are, of course, many questions which the layman would like to ask coTi'cerning certain details about t.l.e progress of the 40 or SO or,. of wool in that suit of clothes, for in the competition of trade it is said that fractions determine the profit. But one cannot reasonably expect secrets to life divulged for the benefit of the purchaser by the man interested in the purchase. One has to find what comfort one may in the knowledge that there is still a margin of pro- | fit and loss between £7 and £2O. j