The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-10-11
Fashion Letter
Written for Tho
Topeka State journal
By
MARGARET ROHE
MARGARET ROHE

1 care not If potatoes cost
A figure fiercely high
That butter. beef and other foods
For / must diet anyway.
With me the vital issue
Is rolling. rubbing, starving off
Excessive fatty tissue
But when it comes to things to wear
Believe me then l sure should care
It's got me worried, goodness knows
The simply awful price of clothes.
New York, Oct. 11.-'My dear. that
coat is perfect on YOU" "Dearie. that
hat was just made for your eyes,"
MY dear. this suit is just your style"
thus do the less naughty sales
ladies affectionateiy foist their wares
on guileless shoppers.
Little Harold, that precocious 1919
model child, on an enforced shopping
tour with his maternal parent. lost not
one of these endearing Applications.
Mother" he demanded sapiently,
do they all dear you because every
things dear now?'
And thus you see the high cost of
clothing stands convicted out of the
mouths Of babes.
Positively it would be tragic If it
were not SO ridiculous-the price tags
dangling from this seasons coats and
frocks and suits.
Do you remember in the good old
days how . y-dollar bill was con-
sidered quite some outlay and the
gown or suit 1t purchased was of ex-
cellent material, lines and style? What
fifty dollars will buy today looks like
something lie chat emportait chez-il.
Sixty-nine, seventy-five and eighty
dollars are average prices for conserv-
alive little dresses of serge, tricotine.
gabardine, satin. taffeta. georgette or
velveteen. Anything the least out of
the ordinary, exclusive or Frenchy i'm
mediately leaps into the hundred class
and even trotteurs of cloth, be they
the least bit original and distinctive
range from $11O to $125 and $3.50 with
the easy speed of an express elevator
going up.
AS for suits, without exaggeration.
even in shoddy materials and cheap
est grade furs. there are no fur
! trimmed suits under a hundred dol
lars When they are of peachbloom,
duvedelyne and others of the ex-
| quisite new materials with beaver
| mole, nutria' or squirrel trimmings
range from $3.50 to $3.50 with the
! greatest of ease and abandon.
You can pick out a sort of rough
and ready sport coat for around SIS
| or $50. but let anything in evora,
| duvetyn or cassimeretine swathe you
round your figure and even tho it
isn't of the fur-bearing species in
I
! hundred and fifty round dollars The
beautiful befurred models of newest
rich weaves belong to the exclusive
! four hundred, to Judge by their price
| tags and with shoes soaring to fifteen
and twenty dollars. What's worse we
can't even afford to kick about it for
fear of wearing out our precious shoe
| leather.
The strange part of it all is that
| never have fabrics and furs and fol-
| de-rols been more lavishly and ex-
/ travagantly exquisite than right this
! minute. The wonderful Lyons velvets
| brocaded in metal, the metallic It's
| sues and brocades, the yelyets, duve-
delynes and peltrys smack of the
glories of the renaissance same time
they take a wallop at your bank roll.
Somehow or other I can't quite see
how the league of nations can success
| fully put over its equality for all ma
tions as long as the high cost of cloth
| ing means SO little to the change purse
| of a Hottentot and so much to the
| pocketbook of an American.