Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-12-30
BY ANNE RIrTENHoUsE.

- y American buyer living in New
IN York. who represents a link OF
N\ retail shops that stretch across
q - the continent. and who is said
to have control over SIas,oo0, GOO year
for the purchase of womens clothes
should be a good authority on the buy
ing power Of the country. He is. He has
gone over the entire situation as it con
fronts us with the new year and a
great war Here is what he says:
The facts and figures which ] have
show that women in the country have
more money today than ever in our his
tory. Hundreds of thousands of these
women will he in a financial position to
buy the kind of clothes they have al
ways wanted, which IS of the better
grades, and garments better than they
have ever worn.
Now. mind you. This is the statement
of man who represents that vast mer-
chandise that we find outside of the ex-
elusive dressmakers and high priced
shops He knows what the women
throughout the country desire to buy.
and when he makes the statement that
the demand for cheap fabrics and
shoddy materials is beginning to wane
he represents a most interesting phase
Oh commercial attiNitN-
D
ny great nations who make women 3
clothes through the process of immense
organizations have flooded the world
with cheap and perishable apparel.
They have catered to desire on tfe
part of hundreds Ok thousands of wom-
en- to buy what - smart and new,
rather than what is durable.
1t is already perceptible. wherever
masses of women have foregathered.
that costly simplicity is the substitute
for costly ornamentation. Soon Will
come the other upheaval in dress. when
women VINO buy inexpensive clothes
will demand that the fabric endure.
1t was all very well, during a period
of enormous productivity on the part
of the mills, to throw away SIS on every
new frock that suited the fancy and to
discard it when the particular fashion
in which ii was made began to wane:
but today We are girded for war. and
the output of these mills is not intended
to curry favor with women.
The appeal of the government for the
use of only four and half yards of
wool in any costume has been met with
a response that sounds like cheer from
the various associations that are band
ed together to provide apparel for wom-
en-: but our anxieties are not especially
involved on this question Tor the next
six months We have sufficient warm
clothing to carry us through the cold
winter. and we do not expect to need
wool in our garments until next No
vember. Therefore. as far as the wom-
are concerned. the mills can do as
they like for the year 1918 with their
output of worsted fabrics. but women
are awakened to the fact that the mills
have no time, no manpower and no sur
plus to turn out millions of yards of
shoddy fabrics which find pleasure for
moment in woman's eyes.
And the woman herself realizes that
at any moment there may be a shortage
Of fabric for her apparel. and she does
not want to spend money. even if it is
not a large amount, for clothes that are
made up of badly woven. badly dyed
materials that last only butterhy's
hour.
This demand for good fabric is not
new 1t is the fundamental instinct of
women in all times of national depriya-
ton and economy to grasp at what is
durable.
We need not fear for the fashions in
the hold that this instinct will have on
women. Individuality of dress. vast
amount Of alteration. the employment
of thousands of seamstresses will be de-
manded by the women who buy=ctotfes;
and it may be-but of that i am not
competent to write-;hat the mills
themselves and the vast wholesale net