Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-12-26
WANTED SMART FURS
A Clever Woman's Search for
a Coat.
PRICES WENT SOARING
GOT ONE AT LAST AND WANTED
ANOTHER.
A Search Among the Partisan Fur
riers and the
Result.
PRICES WENT SOARING
PARIS, December 16. 1903.

PARIS, December 10, 1913.
Once on a time Qast year, pretty girl
in Paris had 500 to buy her a New Year
fur jacket. When 1 say 500 I mean that
she could call on her husband for a supple
ment in case Of surprise or stress; but she
preferred not to.
She desired to have the Jacket very smart
and being Parisienne eveillee-that Is to
say, awake-she knew just what she want
ed. Hence this thrilling story.
First, for generalities. If you think furs,
as furs, go cheap in Paris, listen to the
latest thing of all. 1t is but three days old.
and many fine lady of the Avenue du Bots
and Pare Monceau is meditating on 1t.
Bostock is in Paris, Bostock the mena-
gerie man, turning away money at the big
new Montmartre hippodrome. Now, when
he came he had lot Of skins of every
kind, some good for boas, some for jackets.
some for rugs and some for nothing Some
one must have looked around for him, be-
cause, first making a show Of the fine col
lection, it came to him that he might get
rid of lot of it at less than Partisan
prices. This is how they have been going:
Leopard skins, with the heads, S25; black
bear (Alaska), with and without heads
s25 to 500; polar bear. without heads, from
$40; with heads, as high as $16O; jagua
skins, without heads $50; bengal tigers,
without from $40 to $40; Hymalian ditto,
ditto wolf skins (American), without heads,
$40 to SIS, and, very especially, Alaska
blue fox skins, from $40 to $50 and even $50.
Bostock is a wild-animal man and not
furrier, and some of these skins are for
rugs, while many others are for automo-
bile garments only; but the fact that the
Parsians COB them tells its tale, and the
blue foxes from Alaska remain.
OF course, their real use Is for boas.
Mon renard' is a poor pitifur word in the
red mouth of a smart little Parisienne; IT
Is, rather, ines renards, my foxes,
one for every day of the week, even to the
pink Siberian ones, OF which l shall have
something to say later.
Therefore if the heroine of this tale had
not spent her 500 as you shall learn. she
would have laid it out at Bostocks. where
she saw two blue fox skins that suited
for the two. If this were story Of boas
or of automobile garments-but 1t Is not.
say she went hunting for jacket. What
she wanted was one of those short ones,
falling not as low as midway between hip
and knee. falling straight. cut vague" as
they say, loose. not "adjusted' to the
form. Three of the Bankruptcies she
saw. by the way were drawn and printed
in New York! There's news for you. True,
she was told that the Indications for
their drawing had been sent from Paris.
This you can believe in part.
High in Fashion.
The jacket ought to have been astrakan,
because astrakan, though not one Of the
five furs which must always hold their
own on their merits, like diamonds. pearls,
rubies, emeralds and sapphires, is just now
high in price and high in fashion. The five
skins 1 refer to are sable, SEAL beaver flor
mems coats), lake and river otter and silver
fox. Other furs go in and out of style, put
these stay. Much depends upon the other
materials in fashion. If colOred velvets are
worn in wraps, then chinchilla Is the fur
for them. If heavy silks, black satin and
beads are in vogue, nothing suits them
like sealskin and sable. One year lately
young ladies in London took to wearing
Jackets of smooth arm-brown cloth: mink
was exactly the fur needed, and mink rose
in consequence. Again, If pearly gray
cloth or powder-blue were in style, de-
mand for Canadian lynx or blue fox would
be created.
Marcella knew all this; and that is why
she wanted astrakan. Two years ago you
could have bought an astrakan coat down
almost to her knees for 500. This year
one way above them fetches anything
from $3.50 to $240
How are you going to beginT l asked;
IT have been to G-'s Grunwald's) and
to Ms (Max's),' she answered. Il am
quite in accord with the rue de la Paix as
to cut and trimming; only the price dis
turbs me. I must make my 500 do"
Therefore the went hunting skins. In
measley little shops Of the rue Montmartre
and elsewhere, she turned over piles and
piles of uncut pelts.
at takes ten astrakan skins to make a
Jacket" was the calculation. "At SO each
for nice ones, that makes $50. / know
one-time centre-maitre of Ms who will
cut and make the jacket for $3O The
broderie, put 1t at $40, white silk lining and
other materials. say. SO, that Is just the
thing!
Liked the Best.
She found the SKINS They were bright
black not rusty, small "boucles'' C'kinks),
the real thing; only they were not Sc each!
"And then If the thing proves a failure.
1 must take it just the same. / cannot
throw it back on the mans hands, because
they are my skinsr She shuddered. Then
she went to F-s.
Now F-has big place. He does lot of
work for r. (Reveillon), the biggest deal
er in the gay French capital, wholesale
and retail. R is not the high chic of G.
and M. but even what you might call his
understudy is good.
1t is big place, in the rue Saint-Honore.
A tawny- skinned girl in black, with eyes
like two midnight suns, took charge of us.
"Astrakan? You have reason, madame,
it is the only thing possible for your jacket,
it has risen almost double it's price of
last Year,
Let me see the SKINS" said Macella
Skins and skins, in bundles and bundles,
fastened together at one corner. Samples
and samples.
"A jacket so and so, you know OF this?"
$3.50 calculated the midnight suns.
"Of this?"
"$1S5."
"Of this?'
"s195."
But they get higher and higher instead
of lower and lower!'
What will you. madame picks out the
fine skinsl''
And there she was! Spending about 81 40
on cab fares. the little Parisienne went from
P-'s to RS. fingered at G-'s and Ms,
fascinated but resolute, took dive into the
Louvre Magazine and the Bon Marche to
bring herself down to bourgeoise average
again-and returned to F's disconnected.
There is something said the girl with
ANoTHE1
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