The Portland daily press., 1888-04-19
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS DoIIarpresses

As / entered his establishment, M. Worth
was busy with some new creation" ex-
planning it to half dozen ladies dressed like
so many empresses. Worth himself wore a
short embroidered jacket, capacious trousers,
white flannel shirt fastened at the throat
with loosely knotted scarf, and a brown
Tam OShanter cap. Taking me into a pri-
vate room, he submitted to an interview most
graciously. "Those ladies?" he said in re-
ply to my question. "They are some Of our
dress parade models. Wehaye about ninety
in ali who do nothing from morning till night
but try on fine cloths for the benefit Of Gust om-
ers. You see more than half the time ladies'
who come here think they know what they
want, when they really do not. There Is
where our saleswomen show their skill In
convincing them Of their error. lady
comes in, sees a certain gown, and immedia-
tely goes into raptures over it, i want one
exactly like that she will say. Perhaps she
is told that the shade is unsuitable, that her
hair or complexion requires something quite
different, that she could never wear so large
q pattern, etc. and as crowning objection
the wished-for gown is put on model some
what resembling herself. This last argument
is generally conclusive"
Many of NJ. Worth's customers put implicit
faith in him as to the choice Of suitable ma
L6rldlS anu LUc SLyl6 Oh uEtSotS. r. Ut tAdtu-
ple," he said to his interlocutor, "a telegram
comes from the Empress Of Russia, Send me
a dinner dress Nothing more. We are left
absolute freedom as to style and material.
Not that the Empress Is Indifferent in the
matter of dress. Quite the contrary. She
will require that ali the ladies' costumes at a
certain ball he pink or red or blue. And her
own toilets are always masterpieces OF ele-
gance. The point Is that she trusts our
Judgment rather than her own. In the same
III - g. AAwr hAWrA
ceived over twenty kilograms from Madrid
for ball dresses and we shall make them up
as we may think best. OF course 1t Is diff
cult to get up at one time so many dresses
and make them all different | remember
last winter receiving letters from two New
York society ladies, who were very angry
because we had chanced to send them both
the same dress for the same event. IL was
swell ball-perhaps 600 ladies present-and
in that number we had furnished certainly
sixty dresses. Only think OF it, sixty state
dresses, all to be made at short order and
each one to be absolutely unique. We gen
orally want a week TO complete an order,
but If necessary we can hnlSh costume In
twenty-four hours. We have had French
ladies order dress in the morning and dance
in it at night. remember once making
dress for the Empress Eugene in three hours
and half. OF coulse such rapidlty would
be impossible If elaborate work were re-
quired. 1t often takes weeks to complete an
embroidered gown. AT the tlLl6 Ol Tue CUT
onation of the present Emperor OF Russia we
had girls working night and day for six weeks
on court train for the Empress which was
covered with magnificent embroidery in real
silver That train alone cost 25, ,0O0f, and will
be preserved in the state museum as an his
torical curiosity. You ask me if fabulous
sums are sometimes paid for dresses? 1t Is
quite impossible to make any estimate as to
that. If you begin putting on gold thread,
Jewels, etc, of course there is no limit TO the
cost. Some years ago a Peruvian heiress
paid US 120,000f for a single gown, 1lS,OO0 be-
ing the cost of the laces alone. A few weeks
ago we sold a cloak for 45,0O0f, Of which A.
0OOf went for the fur.
1--WE count among our patrons the ladies OF
all the courts in civilized world, that Is, all
with single exception. Queen Victoria has
never honored us with her patronage. Dur
ing the busy seasons we turn out about 200
gowns and $50 cloaks week. Points Of diff
ference among ladies from various countries?
am sure it is impossible to classify women
in that way. find that every country pro-
duces beautiful faces, graceful figures, and
lovely dispositions, as well as their cOntrair-
les. / suppose Russian ladies are the great
est dancers in the world; English women are
justly proud Of their perfect compilations;
the French lead the world in real elegance,
and American ladies impress me by the easy
way they wear gorgeous gowns. Nothing
overwhelms them"