The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-07-04
COURT LIFE AND INTRIGUE
IN ROYAL HIGH SOCIETY

People sometimes wonder what sum
is put aside for dress by the daueh-
tiers of royal houses. Before her mar
riage, the duchess of Fife was said to
nave a small dress allowance, and the
sum of $500 year was mentioned.
Besides yachting and everyday dresses
and all the usual customs required by
girl of the upper class, royal prin-
cesses have also to wear the costly
and elaborate dresses which their
rank demands at the weddings of
their near relations. On the whole,
1t may be asserted that frugal prin-
cess may Spend as little as $4,000 a
year ON her dress, while her more
wealthy and extravagant sister may
md her dress bills amount to ten
times that sum. The empress of Rus
STA. who, more than any other Euro
pean lady is able to indulge her Wild
est fancies, dresses with the greatest
simplicity-in the daytime mostly in
tailor made coats and skirts, in the
evening generally in the purest white.
Queen Amelie of Portugal, the most
beautiful queen in the world and one
OF the most talented of women, has
made dress for herself for spring
wear. a dress which, while they are
patterning after it. the dressmakers
of Europe, especially of Paris and
London, jealousy declare that the
queen adapted from a pattern in a
Partisan fashion journal. This state
ment, however, is vigorously denied
by the queens ladies, who declare she
designed, cut, and draped it herself.
Whether or not the queen evolved the
entire gown or adapted it from some
pattern, not one has dared ask her
majesty. and even those who charge
her with plagiarism of the gown are
copying 1t for the spring and early
summer wear, especially in Great Bril-
tain, where the spring is later. The
queen, l am informed, made the gown
with her own hands, cutting, basting,
and sewing 1t herself, without the aid
of any of her women and she used
an American sewing machine to do
part of the work The gown, when
finished, she wore Immediately, and
her first appearance in it was while
driving in Lisbon. On that occasion
the gown provoked but little attention,
because her subjects are accustomed
to see the queen we'll dressed, but later
when she wore the gown during a
morning stroll in the grounds that
surround the Necassidades palace, one
of her ladies -in-waiting remarked to
courier that the gown worn by the
queen was made by her own hands.
Then the gown became one of the
most famous in the world, for per-
haps never before has any queen
made dress for herself, and the news
that the queen had acted as her own
dressmaker added to her great popu-
larity with the people of Portugal.
Dressmaking is but an added accom-
plishment for Amelie. She is ply
stefan and surgeon, graduate in
anatomy, trained nurse, and medi-
cine and nursing are her hobbies. Be-
sides this she is skilled musician
and paints we'll, several of her paint
ings having been exhibited anony-
mously in Portugal and Spain. For
years. also, it has been known that
she made her own bonnets and hats,
showing wonderful taste and artistic
sense in making headwear and re-
trimming Partisan hats But never
before. SO far as was known, has she
ever attempted to make her own
gowns. Despite the claims of Partisan
experts that the ideas in the making
OF the gown were taken from fashion