New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1909-10-10
Metz, YORK the Great Fashion Centre

the latest Paris styles. One has only to go back
to the files of the newspapers and fashion jour-
nails published in the COS and 7Os of the last
century to find out how that pioneer of Ameri-
can merchants. a. T. Stewart, placed at the dis
posal of his customers French merchandise and
French fashions. The grandmOthers of the
present generation of shoppers will well re-
member the dazzling fabric displays that were
made in his historic store. He blazed the trail
that our foremost merchants are now travelling.
With what an immense annual outlay they
follow this leader is known only to themselves,
but that it is done successfully and with glory
the words of American woman long resident
in Paris well testify:
There is nothing in the world like the New
York shops. Living in Paris is interesting. but
if 1 could not go home once a year I should be
the most unhappy of mortals. OF course, 1 like
to visit with my friends there, but most of them
come to Paris every year or so, and, between us,
go because 1 simply revel in the New York
shops. Shopping here gets on my nerves. If
you want something particularly novel the
obliging shOpkeeper tells you he has only a
sample and that he must order it made in the
color you specially desire At home you find
just what you want in every possible color and
SO you have only to order ii charged and sent.
After years of these Paris shops have come to
regard the department stores at nome as the
perfect paradise of women Everything shown
there is so lovely and fresh and quite of the
latest style I don't see how ever it is done"
Done it certainly is. but at the cost of no end
of thought and expenditure, for the task of the
foreign buyer is no sinecure 1t is easy mat
ter to select from the immense amount of styles
and merchandise shown in Paris just those that
Will be liked by. the American women. One has
only to meet the foreign buyer in the French
capital to realize that his her visit TO gay
Paris is no pleasure jaunt. Among all the joy
Gus thrOngs at the races wherever fashions
are to be seen you can easily pick out the Amer
lean buyer by the thoughtful and preoccupied
expression of countenance.
AS Paris creates for the civilized women of
every nation, it is no light task to select from
the great army of merchandise there displayed
the styles that will be accepted in this country
One must be a close student of American human
nature, of the different habits and the varying
social usages, to pick the fashion winners for
America. Even the poor fashion chronicler soon
acquires that worried expression. for even to
tell of the French fashions that appropriate
for American use is no light matter.
1t is engrossing and bewildering TO witness
even one of the opening displays of the great
Paris dressmaking establishments What, then,
must it be to those who are making the nspec-
the collections of the acknowledged leaders of
fashion and from the innumerable models select
just the right ones.
The salons of these dressmakers are truly
magnifcent-some of them historic. For in
stance, there is one firm that shows its gowns
in the same suite in which Napoleon III was
introduced to Eugene de Montijo, who after
ward won worldwide fame the Empress Eu-
genie and as the woman who actually set the
fashions for more than generation.
The manikins. as the girls are called who
wear the model costumes, coats and wraps, are
chosen for their grace and beauty. On the days
of the great spring and fall openings these
manikins appear in garments specially fitted
70 them and with hair arranged to harmonic
Herewith This season the manikin who ex-
bibited Greek and Empire neghgees and tea
gowns never presumed TO appear in tailored