The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-12-02
WOMEN DESIGNERS
FOURR THOUSAND OF THEM EARN
 ING GOOD LIvTNGS.
TEex Make Designs For Everything From silks to ITousea--De We'll In Competition with Men--isxpe-
 rirnees of some.


 when Mrs. Dunlap Hopkins founded the School of Applied Design for We men in 1892. it was work of faith on her part Ever since the world began to talk about women at all one thing that was always insisted on was that they had not the inventive or creative faculty
 Today there are women regularly employed to design silks. rugs and other goods which are extensively ad- vertised as imported wares The goods are imported for they are made Tn foreign countries. where they can be made better and cheaper than in Amer lea But they are made from designs furnished by New York women.
 One graduate of this school works for Turkish firm in New York. She Is constantly designing patterns and New York market. These are sent to the orient and made ID into Turkish and other Eastern rugs.
 The same is true of French and Japanese silks and various other goods. The native designers may not excel the foreign ones, but heywunderstand better what Americans want
 Four thousand former pupils of this school are now earning living in designing They are scattered all over the country, but the majority are in and around New York. Most of them are employees of manufacturing firms at salaries ranging from $10 to $25 a week. few receiving less than $15.
 In New york some two hundred have reached the point where they do bet- l ter by free lance work in their own studios The regular rriee IS s25 for a design for printed silk, SIS for woven l silk and $s for dress silk. For hang 1 Ing wall paper the price is s25 and l frieze and ceiling as well the price $50. One girl sold six s25 designs in one week recently. and there Is none of them who does not average at least l $25 a week.
 Several of these girls are employed as renderers for leading house dec- orators One renderer for celebrated man in this 1ine receives $50 week. The decorator talks with the owners and then tells the renderer his plans. the color and style for each room, which is submitted and amended. Then she finds and buys everything, super l intends the putting on the wall cover l ings, finds the right furniture, some times antique, at great expense of time and trouble.
 l Two women who did this sort Of thing very successfully have now for some years had an establishment or l their own on Fifth avenue, where they l do the most expensive high class inc l terior decorating. No sign of feminlty appears in the firm name. and only their patrons know they are not men Another woman who is at the head of her own business In Philadelphia has had a rather remarkable career. She worked as an empioye and iude- pendently fiveyears after leaving school and at the end of that time had saved money enough to buy out "a stained glass business.
 One of the leading publishing firms recently got out an edition Of Shakes peare in fifty volumes. Two girls who are independent studio workers ob- tafned the contract of Illuminating this work by hand. They received S6 a vol tune, or $500 for each of the sets, sev- eral hundred in number. They de- signed all the capitals and other H. luminations in conventional designs, and then had the manual work done by large number of other girls.
 Cne studio worker is exceedingly successful as a rug designer. being known throughout the trade. Other women design all manner of things burnt leather, portieres, lamp shades, ! furniture, cretonnes. chintzes, jewelry, l tableware, linens, china, menu cards, 1 cotillion favors and a thousand articles of use and luxury,
 One student was called upon the other day to design very beautiful box to be made of rare woods ass the receptacle for rare and valuable Cru cifix. Some of the best known books of recent publications have had covers designed by these girls, and one lately published book, written by a woman. mad a cover designed by her sister The slowest of all offices to open to | these women have been those of the architects, for here they encounter the only disability attendent upon their 1 sex It is customary for tho architect i who designs a building to superintend l it's erection, and this Is difficult for women. THere are, however, about | fifty women employed as mechanical draughtsmen in architects offices in | New York
 1 One Of them recently designed a l Court House for a Long Island Town Her employer will superintend the cree l tion of the building, but the design was really accepted as she submitted it.
 In Twilight Park in the CatskflIs l there is one summer cottage which was actually erected by the woman who de- l signed 1t. A number of women are now busy at landscape architecture The architect who has completed a handsome country house will turn it over to such a woman to put in per- spective.
 She designs steps, walks lawns per. 1 golas, the whole setting or frame of
 
 l Q good deal of such work has done also a good deal of very well paid writing about it. One woman does all the mechanical drawing for a firm of | electrical railway contractors.
 They find all sorts of unexpected avenues of employment. One designs diamond mountlngs alone. Another designs all the jewelry for big firm. and Is specially known for her brooch es.
 A firm which makes very fashIona- ble tailored garments sends out on each one a label with a special design ! woven in. Two girls gets $15 a weeH for designing these labels. i Everything connected with feminine | fashions offer an abundance of well paid work. All fashion magazines eln- | ploy designers for their plates.
 Designing for trade catalogues offers l an almost inexh2ustible field Girls under twenty make $20 and $25 a week 1 at this An independent worker makes aa good income by desigps for shirt waist fronts, all over lace and em- | broidered dress patterns.
 ! Women who draw designs for Fifth avenue tailors. or for those who put expensive ready made gowns on the market. earn salaries of s1,5cO year.