The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-06-16

l The Bon Marche, the Galleries Lafay cite and the Louvre were the great de- partment stores of the world to start
 this trick. and in so doing they infuri-
 ated the exclusive set of designers in Paris. Nothing can be done about it. It has gone on for a decade or more, and l the great designers have not been able
 to make any law to prevent it or to stop l the traffic between subordinates that permits 1t.
 l It is amusing to hear the tirade of
 sarcasm and indignation that French de- signers direct against the American
 stores for stealing their models and sell ing them at low prices, as if America
 was the only guilty party. Right around
 the corner from the Place vendome, Galleries Lafayette will offer cheap copy
 of it for $25. If the designers cannot stop such imitation and cheapening of
 styles in their own neighborhood, how
 can they expect to stop it three and | six thousand miles away?
 1 It is this trick over here, however, I that is the despair of the high-priced
 dressmakers and the delight of the shops | that sell cheap clothes
 l The dressmakers rest their increasing optimism concerning high priced clothes -an optimism based on the fact that the | dressmaking business has not suffered since the war-on the idea that women will always need to be fitted for good gowns. The average figure can buy the cheap gown but the fastdious woman cannot wear it because it does not fit her. and the woman who has a figure
 that departs from the normal cannot even contemplate such a gown. However. one must say this in praise of the cheap ready-to-wear frock in
 America. It is cut on the most excep-
 at such price. Even the best workers
 of the Galleries Lafayette do not surpass,
 and sometimes do not equal, the Amer
 ican cutters, who work by the hundreds
 on gowns that are sold by the thou sands We must have an exceedingly
 good national figure. That is the com
 ment of the foreigners who see our
 women in the ready-to-wear, quick-to- buy, smart-to-look-at, cheap gowns that are sold in every city on this continent. WATCH FOR APPEARANCE OF MEDICI COLLAR
 Two women have worn French gowns
 with high, wired. outstanding. Medici collars of lace and tulle. Don't let this fact slip your memory for an instant. Tiff you are vitally interested in the new things that come up suddenly over the horizon and promise many follow |ers.
 The Medici collar has come and gons since Catherine brought it from Italy
 to France and Scottish Mary handed lit down to history. although her subtle Imother-in-law lent it her name. The student of history sees in it whole epoch of rivalry between two women, the old, old rivalry between youth and middle age. brains and beauty. power land vanity. The Medici collar is . symbol of the history of human nature lpressed into few short. mad years of French life. It represents what the
 Three Feathers of Great Britain repre- sent. It is more than fashion; it Is
 the symbol of a dynasty.
 Now and then. it has flickered in
 and out of fashion. It was taken up | by other queens beside Catherine and Mary; it was worn by debutantes on stately gowns with trains quarter of a century ago; it has been maintained | in a measure in half the courts of Europe, and it may be revived this sum- mer.
 It was made of point lace, wired to its exremest points and worn with a black satin dinner gown that was