Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-09-12
THIEVES OF FASHION.
Making Living by Stealing Dress
Designs.

Fashion thieving by people who make 1t
latest and newest ideas in dress before
fession in Paris.
So uncommonly active have these fash
ion thieves been this summer that those
famous Partisan couturieres, modistes
and dressmakers who always jealousy
uphold the supremacy Of Paris In all
that pertains to women's dress and fash
ion are up in arms and seeking the aid of
the police.
Foreign rivals and the smaller COM
petitors in their own city. they say. have
their recognized agents who unscrupu-
lously bride people in the Paris work
rooms to divulge the ideas Of their new
est reations. This even before they
themselves can complete a model to give
it out to the world.
These agents actually make their living
in this way.
AS soon as a new fashion Is even limited
at in Paris the secret of the new design
and styie-intended to be first launched at
the fashionable Auteuil or Longchamps
races-leaks out. and frequently Is
actually produced by the smaller dress
makers a week or two before the great
fashion parades on the famous race
courses.
The traitor within the camp is ever
ready to sell the secrets to second or
foreign. firms. The smaller Partisan
houses are thus able to flood Paris with
the latest dress mode at prices within the
reach of the woman of ordinary means.
All this goes on despite the most strin-
gent precautions which the leading
houses take to hide their creations from
the prying eyes of unauthorized persons.
and the police admit they can do little
or nothing in the matter, for a firm can
not copyright a fashion.
One of the best known fashion au-
thorities says that in ten years time
there will not be any recognized great
dressmakers left because of the copy
st and the filcher.
But it Is not only the latter that
fash ion creators fear, the modern
di eaded enemy. though in the past he
was always regarded as a powerful
ally in spreading their fame world
wide.
When the latest mode Is on show at
Longchamps or Auteuil a small army
of camera men invade the race course.
Their photographs register accurately
the smallest detail of the new creation.
and within three hours hundreds of ex-
cellently produced prints of the picture
are speeding to the worlds fashion
centers-to London, New York, Berlin,
Vienna.
Long before the Paris firm RESPONSE
BILE for the new mode can send out its
first consignment at its own exclusive
prices the novelty is being reproduced
and sold by the lynx-eyed fashion ex-
perts at the other centers.
1t is known that there are photo
graphic agencies In Paris which make
a specially of these fashion photo
graphs. In all the leading capitals
they have their subscribers. and to
these, for annual payments, ranging
from s5 to EGO. they send out every
Sunday evening photographs of mod
els taken by their operators the same
afternoon at Auteuil or Longchamps.
The photographs often reach the CAPT
tails over a week before the original
model
This fashion stealing is losing the
great dress houses of Paris many thou
sands every year." the manager Of the
London branch of one of these estab-
lishments told the writer. But what
can one do? You cannot prevent the
taking of pictures or stop any one
sketching on race course and you
can only prevent treachery in your
own ranks by discovering the traitor"