Arizona republican., 1910-09-25
WHERE FASHIONS
 COME FROM
People Who Have an Interest in the
 Constant Change in Dress.

Season after season. year in and year out, the fashions" present them selves in an endless succession of changes. Where do they come from and how do they come? Who invents them? It seems a mysterious business, and there is in fact a good deal of uncertainty and caprice about it, but no mystery. It is a regular process, says the London Times, conducted on definite and intelligible principles. which are at bottom just the same old business principles that govern other things
 The fashions are business. and only different from other business in the fact that their essential quality is changed; they are clothes illuminated by change The same quality enters into some other things, too, but not nearly to the same extent. for very simple and sufficient reasons There is more demand and at the same time more scope for change in dress than Tn other things, such as furniture houses, meals or modes of shaking hands. Change is novelty and desired mainly because it attracts attention and confers distinction; and these ob- jects are more effectively attained in proportion to the prominence of the personal element.
 Nothingi so close to the person as clothes, nothing so effectually at tracts attention to the person. At the same time they are more perishable than furniture or houses; they need fsnf fnt .a1a .t. T. ties of variation are unlimited. Con sequently, dress offers a field for fashion or novelty so superior to any other that it has annexed the word, and the fashions" have come to mean novelty in dress, and especially wom- ems dress, for the same reasons, be- cause it is more important for women to attract personal attention than for 'men. There are fashions in mems dress, but they represent very trifling changes, and the men who attach inn portance to them are of no account.
 These observations give the clue to the process of producing the fashions. There are three persons who have a common interest in constant change of dress; they are the manufacturer. the dressmaker and the wearer. The first two need no explanations: they want to sell the commodities they produce, and the frequent changes of style insure a perpetually renewed de mand
 Without such changes people would go on wearing their old things much longer, and since there would be no inducement to buy new ones so long as the old served their purpose, econ omy would suggest the use of the most durable materials. The purvey- ors' business would shrink according ly. The fashions, which compel cus- toners to get new things, keep it going.
 How, then, about the third party concerned. the wearer, whose interest is not to be always obliged to buy new things? It looks as if the fash ions were devised for the beenfit of the manufacturer and the dressmaker, who cOnspire against the wearer. The answer to that is that there are wearers and wearers, those who set the fashions and those who follow it. The latter would really gain if there were no changes. but to the former novelty is essential, and their interest is identical with that of the manufacturer and the dressmaker: they are partners in the business Who are they?
 Women who for one reason or an other desire to attract attention and be conspicuous They include ladies occupying prominent positions in the social world. ladies occupying equally or more prominent positions on the stage, beauties in society and beauties out of it. All these require to be conspicuous, and an indispensable means to most of them is novelty in dress. which attracts attention and