The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1907-03-30

rise and fall of Empire or Republic,
have shaken the absolute supremacy
of fair France in the domain of fash
ion. Here is seen the strange specta-
Gle of a great nation practically liv-
ing and thriving by catering to the
female vanity of the civilized world.
1t is well known that houses on the
Rue de la PaiX, such as Worth and
Paquin, Felix, Laferriere Doucet
Rouff, and the rest, set the fashions
for the world. To their gorgeous sa-
looms come Expresses and great wo-
men from every corner of the earth
New York and London, Buenos Ayres
and Sydney, San Francisco and Rio
Janeiro. It is the same with womens
hats. Here are houses like Virot's
and Carriers, with Marescots Geor-
gettes, and the rest, imperiously
handing out new models every season,
all of which are meekly accepted as
"the thing" by every woman and girl
in civilization.
| It is little wonder that all the silk
worms in China and every other part
of the world seem to work exclusively
for France, and entire cities of the
great Republic are given up to frocks
and frills. Thus there are two hun
dred and twenty great factories for
unwinding the raw silk cocoons on ten
thousand pans; thirty-seven immense
establishments for carding and comb
ing, one of them three hundred ma
chimes; seven hundred and eight huge
shops for throwing, with nearly two
million spindles; and nearly three
hundred factories for spinning, with
something like five million spindles
Silk culture is carried on throughout
the country, with Government encour-
agement in twenty-eight Departments,
but most extensively in the Gard,
Drome, Ardeche, and Vaucluse. Last
year there were upward of one hun
bred and fifty thousand persons en-
ployed in the French silk industry
alone, and the product of the cocoons
was over eighteen million pounds.
France exported two and a half mil
lion francs worth of cocoons, and
nearly six million pounds of raw silk,
worth about hundred million francs.
One entire quarter of the city is given
up to making artificial flowers for
women's hats, and another section is
given over exclusively to the ribbon
dealers.
The man of modes cuts a figure in
State politics in France such as mere
business people find it difficult to real
ize. Thus a dressmaker like Felix is
| III wit
Legion of Honor, just as King Ed
ward or the Gear would bestow an
order upon some great diplomat.
In the first quarter of last year Paris
alone sent us more than a million
francs worth of frocks and lingerie,
and more than twice that value in hats
and artificial flowers; not to mention
fans and trifles that come under the
head of ARTICLES de Paris" to the eX-
tent of another two millions.
Several times a year ENJOYS or am
bassadors arrive in Paris bent upon
buying models of hats and frocks;
and how much money they leave be-
hind them can be only dimly guessed
at 1t is had on the authority of Felix
himself that hats alone mean fifty
million dollars a year to the City or
Light. This can well be believed, for
in the vast, opulent saloons OF the
Rue de la Paix-discreet and hushed
one will meet not only Expresses
and Archduchesses of Austria and
Russia but keen eyed buyers from eV-
cry nation in Europe, from London
ito Belgrade and Vienna, before all OF
whom manillins or living models trail
their shimmering glories.
The walls of the saloons are cover
de with priceless tapestries, and on
the polished floors are stretched silken
rugs from Samarcand. Not far away
from this quarter one will find eight
hundred wholesale houses that do no
thing but manufacture exquisite flow
ers of silk and velvet that almost put
Dame Nature herself to shame.
Such works of art, together with
costly ostrich plumes, figure upon
CONNECTIONS" designed it may be by
an artist of the rank of Jan van Beer