The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1888-10-17
WHAT SHE PAYS FOR DRESS
HOW my LADY" MANAGES TO SPEND
$4,000 A YEAR.

Five Hundred Dollar Gowns, $500 Coats
S15 Stockings, $50 Skirts, S:5 Corsets
RS1o Vests, Are Articles Which!Are Indis-
pensable to High Society Woman.
From the New York S.ar9
In this big town of ours it takes 1000
dressmskers and one hardly knows how
many sesmstresses, over 800 mllllners, 600
jewellers and 800 fancy goods dealers to
keep 'smy lady" in gowns, underwear and
trities that make her the exquisite object
that she is. It takes 5000 legal minds to
separate her and that man, and one hardly
knows just how many confectioners to at
tend to her wants for sweets. Dress is
bit of weakness to be found in the best,
truest and noblest of them, in the old IS
well as in the young. To marry or not to
marry in every case depends upon this
weakness Can afford it or not depends,
unless one has untold riches, on the matter
of how much it costs her to gown her
pretty self, and how much she will want
thereafter.
To dress well costs great deal of money.
Of course one can spend, if they have the
wherewithal, as much money as one cares
to; but to buy a suf6ciency of gowns and
underwear, and to buy the best quality
from ''house with reputation, takes g
pretty big bit out of ones income. The
ordinary necessities of woman's ward
robe, presuming her to have an unlimited
purse, without counting the cost OF gowns.
amounts to no small amount, as may be
seen by the following:
In the first place. she will probably have
four or five silk vests; they are generally
of purple, or possibly mauve. They come
well down over the hips; are quite as
dainty affairs as one could imagine, but
not so dainty in price. They are of silk,
of course, and in price range from SIS and
$40 apiece up. She will have dozen pair
Of calcons. They will be long and elabo-
rately trimmed with lace, and cost from 81
TO SO pair, the range in price depending
largely upon the richness Of the lace. Pre-
suming that she believes in and wears black
undergarnents, even If she does not sleep
between black satin sheets, she will have
three pairs of black satin suspenders, stock
ing suspenders and not garters. They will
cost her So pair, if not bit more. .
Eight pairs Of black silk stockings will
come next on the list. They are made
plain, but the price is fancy. They will
cost aOOut % per pair, anu, II eHnploioeIeo
or of little better quality, one can pay
SIS. Three black flannel skirts will be
necessary. They are trimmed, as general
rule, with lace, and cost SIS. You can
pay less, but would hardly care to after
having the first part of the wardrobe fitted
out as above. Two black silk skirts with
Spanish lace will cost from $25 to SO
quite as much as an ordinary mans suit of
clothes. A high society lady would pay
$50 withou, grumbling, and probably think
500 for the two quite reasonable.
Mrs. Langtry pays $40 for single pair
of corsets. She has them made in Paris
and of q special style. It would seem,
perhaps, that the Jersey Lilys form was
too superb for corsets at all, but she has six
pair of them made at time, aud those six
are worn during the year. AS general
rule Just half as many will do, and they
can be purchased at $40 pair Evening
co.ssts about s. per pair, and two pair are
are necessary. They are like riding corset,
but much shorter The totsl cost of the
above wardrobe of undergarments is as fol-
t0yya.