The Western outlook. [volume] (San Francisco, Cal.) 1894-1928, 1915-09-25
THEIR SHOPS PALACES
PARTISAN DREssMAkERs IN FINE
ESTABLISHMENTS.
Maintained at Enormous Costa, but
Fair Femininity Refuses to Be
Satisfied With Anything Not
OF the Best.

When woman is not praising her
dressmaker she is abusing him. Either
he is treasure, an artist, q genius;
or he is just the reverse; his prices
are extortionate, he never keeps his
word, his materials are bad and he
has hundred petty ways of economic
ing on them so that renovation is Inn
possible. We hear all this and much
more about the sins Of the dress
maker, even as we hear great deal
in his praise. Out of all the praise
and blame, one point stands out
strongly, and that is his prices On
this everyone agrees; they are very
high, and the time has come to ask
ourselves If they must remain so.
For some unknown reason the Paris
dressmaker has elected to establish
himself in princely mansions instead
of in shops. He now inhabits the most
luxurious apartments and hotels In
the city. His rent is stupendous, his
train Of attendants is enormous, and
until the war came to put a stop to
his course, downward or upward,
whichever we like to call It, there
seemed to be no limit to his ambitions.
In the old days we read Of ministers
Of state falling through ambition; to.
day, or rather yesterday, 1t was dress.
makers who ran that risk.
1t is not surprising that women paid
high for a Bingham dress when that
dress was chosen, fitted and made In
a house that was palace Of delight to
all who shared the taste for furniture
which reminded you in fash Of "Sal-
ambo," the "Peau de Chagrin"
and the Empress Josephine" The
chair in which you sat was a show
piece, the mirror In which you saw
your reflection had once thrown back
the image of queen, the halls through
which you walked opened on garden
of such dignity and loneliness that its
trees seemed to sigh in the wind with
memories of past honors. To all this
you must add the illustrious name Of
the dressmaker and the genius Of his
designers, cutters, makers and sales
women. It Is no wonder the ging-
ham dress cost so dear.
In another palace the furniture is in
the style of Versailles In the glorious
eighteenth century. The bergeres, the
coiffeuses, the chaises tongues, the
cabinets filled with rare china or
priceless lace, the engravings on the
walls, the silk which covers the tabou.
everything Is quite splendid In
its way, and the manikins who float
about in models of amazing fashion
remind you of tropical birds, beauti-
full but songless. Is it to be marveled
at that a dinner dress of silken splen.
dor costs ESQ? The very elevator in
which you are carried from one floor
to another is a gem Of eighteenth CEN
fury design and decoration.
There Is yet another reason for
these high prices-the wages OF the
men and women who make the
dresses. After the dressmaker, who
claims the first profits, come the de-
signer, the cutter, the filters, the null
titude of little hands" who do the
dull, important sewing parts, the
brodeuses, and further crowd OF
attendants who hover round that pre-
siding genius, the vendeuse. All these
people have to be paid. When a dress
costs $50 there should be no badly
paid labor in it, otherwise its raison
d'etre ceases to exist. Before the war
l knew that some Of the head sales
women made good incomes, and down
to the little hands" the pay was not
bad. The designers were also fairly
paid, but the odd workers who were
not employed in the house itself did
not benefit fairly by the big sums
which were paid by the women who
dress in the Rue la de Paix.