The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-08-21

| The contrast between the expenditure
of the American woman and the Eng
lish woman is striking How can it be
accounted for?
To a considerable extent the tailor
SO at least maintain the fashion ex-
perts consulted yesterday-is respon-
sfble for the comparative economy of
| the English society woman Sixteen
or eighteen guineas--that is $50 or $50
buys a perfectly cut. well made gown
which does not soon pail on the wearer,
and this the English woman will wear
in the morning, when the American
considers an expensive toilette essen
tial. Nor does any one expect the So
cial leaders in London to wear a toilette
fresh from the hands of Worth or
Paquin every time they appear in pub
lie.
In the country Paris gowns are
thought out of place, and on the river
the English woman wears simple linen
or flannel suit, costing about $50 or SIS. a
shady straw hat for which she pays
about $780, and a summer shirt such as
can be bought for SIC or so. The Ameri-
can, when in England, at any rate,
sacrifices a $3.50 toilette to the Thames.
In the quantity of clothes, too, the
English woman effects a saving. Not
only are American women ruinously
extravagant in the price they pay but
it is no unusual thing to discard a
gown after wearing 1t two or three
times. In England elaborate dressing
is more or less reserved for certain set
functions, but in America the carnival
Of clothes continues morning, noon and
night-each day and all days.
mo English society woman ever
dreams of laying in a big stock of
gowns costing $1,000 or 81. 500 apiece. as
American women regularly do The
English buyer has to be content with
IeWer OF these very expensive dresses
pointed out another court dressmaker
The $4,000 frocks spoken of are
generally fictitious, though very COSTLY
court dresses have been worn by Eng
nsh ladies. Ten thousand dollars has
been paid for a court dress but more
than half the value has been repre-
sented in the lace Duchesses have
worn dresses the cost of which went
into five figures, but they have been
American Duchesses.'' "
Nor mas any English bride had 5000
ooo expended on her trousseau. as had y
the American bride of an English peer.
Nelther does any English lady run
through $4,000 worth of evening frocks
in one season.
The big dressmakers' bills of the y
american woman have been attributed ~
10 the long credit allowed by tba
american modiste. AS an actual fact
equally long credit is insisted upon bv
women In English society. Between
F1fth avenue and Bond street there is
iIttie 10 choose. In both cases the mo-
ulste mas to wait a couple of years or
more Tor the settlement of her ac-
count, and the accounts of $4,000
standing in the name of American
women have many parallels in London
Love of the novel does not reduce
the English buyer to the same exces-
sive extravaganza as her transatlantic
sister. In a Bond street shop last week
me price of a handkerchief -ricbIv
trimmed with Brussels point was asked
oy an English woman.
seventeen guineas ($9).''
very pretty,,S said the ladv and che
fdered a dozen handkerchief. with
Countess coronet embroidered in tha
corner for $3.50. A few minutes 1o.ae
ne hlmpsy square of lace attracted ~
ancy of an American shopper aad
'traightway the seventeen ,,,,,
handkerchief changed hands