Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-12-14
American Merchants
Who Sell Reliable
Furs Are Up in
Arms Against
Stores That Sell
Imitation, Dyed
and Pieced Skins,
and "Pure Fur
Law" Is De-
manded.

~"HERE are all sorts OF trouble In
the world Of fur. Women are
complaining. furriers are sad.
advertising men are fighting
and dressmakers are trying to
Invent something new. AS for the names
OF the peltry we wear, they are getting
harder every moment. 1t has been neces-
sary for the saieswonlen to study French
for the last four years OF they would
speak correctly concerning their wares,
and now II looks as though they would
have to study Russian, if they are behind
the fur counters.
One of the advertising men says that
the word eat would cover much of the
peltry sold, and that this would not re-
ouire an education in foreign languages
He points out with satire that America is
suffering from an inundation OF cheap
furs under mighty names. that 1t is diff
flcult to tell what one IS buying, ana
there are those who bear him out.
:. Z
Some OF the high-soundiDg names are
easily translatable into the common-gar-
den-variety kind. and SO no one IS deceiv-
ed but the women who did not ask what
the word meant.
For instance. that new fur which is a
combination of mahogany and canary is
called ..perwitsky. 1t is Russian for
chipmunk. The price is the glorifcation
OF the skin When the fur was first used
IN Paris. by Gallo. and Poiret, ! think.
II was miscalled .'kolinsky, and the
cable, in repeating It, spelled It
continents. 1t only verified the feeling
that many people had that 1t was nothing
but Russian for polecat-
The reliable furriers make no pretense
that IL is other than chipmunk. and they
also tell you that 'glouton" is Labra-
dor wolf: but, you can rest assured that
there are many women who buy the fasn-
ionable ..putais'' without knowing that 1t
is French for polecat.
We have been through fight which
has terminated with more or less success
for the placement of genuine labels on
gowns The French designers have helped
TO make this fight q bitter one. Probably
we never will be strictly honest about
powering desire OH the part Of many
dressmakers and shops to offer non-im-
ported gowns as imported ones as long
as human nature remains the same as 1t
has through the centuries: We shall al
ways have takers in clothes as we'll as
In everything else. because 1t is the
easiest way to dispose of wares by CIV
ing buyers what they ask for.
x
There is no use in depending on the in
dividual. The only way is to make a law
and see that it is enforced. \ handful
OF the French designers think they are
compelling honesty. or rather preventing
fraud, by publishing a semi-annuai list
OF the names of the dressmakers I'm each
American city vino bought gowns from
them during The SQrni-annlI2l exhibitions
In Paris. If the French people Knew
little more about the inside of the
business over here. they would save
themselves that trouble. for the list
has already become joke
In New York last September an inn
porter made jest OF il by confessing III
print that he was not al owed to buy
Cabot gowns at Cal'ot's. but he offered
fifty Of them for sale, and all were genu-
Inc. His name was omitted from Cabot s