Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-08-29
FASHION PIRATES
ACTIVE IN PARIS
Style "BootIeggers" PiIfer
Exclusive Designs Despite
Detectives Efforts.
BY WILLIAM BIRD.

By Cable to The Star.
PARIS, August 2s.-The bootleg
cling season is in full swing. Not
bootlegging of liquor. of course. but
OF fashions.
Novel designs. created by the
style cars of the Champs Elysees
and the Rue De La Paix, are appear
ing hourly in the carefully guarded
salons where New York buyers are
gathered to appraise and choose and
to bargain for exclusive American
rights" But all the time, by devices
almost diabolical in their cleverness.
the fashion bootleggers, the style
nitrate. is working and scheming TO
pilfer the designs and rush nls
counterfeit reproductions off by the
same boat.
Nobody knows the exact extent OF
this Illicit traffic. but 1t Is vast.
Hardly a day passes, during the sea-
son of Openings" but some new
ruse is discovered, and new precau-
tons have to be taken to circum-
vent 1t.
Viola Cross Kept Busy.
Viola Cross-the famous Viola
Kraus who figured in the unsolved
Elwell murder mystery in New York
and who now is sort of prime
MINISTRIES of the fashion cZar1na,
Jeanne Lanvin, devotes much or ner
time at this season of the year 10
ferreting out the willy ways OF the
style bootlegger.
'"rhere is a copyright law" she
says, which Is supposed to protect
us against limitations of our designs.
But it doesn't do much good, unless
complete dress is slavishly copied. In
that case we can sue for and obtain
heavy damages"
The pirates, however, are not SO
stupid as to be caught that way. They
alter some detail--a sleeve, trimming
land then maintain that their design
is a new one and not copy.
I'VE have to contend with two KINDS
of piracy One is that Of the fashion
pirate who makes a business OF steal
ing designs, and does nothing but that.
The other is the dishonest buyer, often
American, who obtains the entree to
our openings and then simply ap-
propriates our designs without pay.
ing for them.
"The out-and-out pirate has numer-
Gus tricks. He brides our work peo-
pie, during the few weeks preceding
the opening, and often contrives to
obtain sketches, samples of materials
and embroidery, and occasionally com.
plete patterns. OF course, we have q
thorough system of surveillance in
the workrooms and this avenue Of
offering is hard to penetrate.
Ingenious Trick Found.
His ingenuity does not stop there,
however We discovered another one
of his tricks a short time ago. A
servant in one of the hotels where
many of our biggest customers stop
was found to be renting out latest
dresses, which she borrowed for an
hour or two att time, just long
enough to enable the bootlegger to
sketch them In every detail. The
dresses We're taken while the pur-
chaser was out and returned to their
place before they were missed The
servant received 100 francs for every
/ model thus pilfered."
Mrs. Cross smiled her satisfaction at
the ingenious detective methods that
] had led to the discovery Of this fraud.
Il But where we have to look pretty
sharp is with certain classes of Amer
lean buyers. 1t seems almost incred-
tble, but one of the biggest men in the
business was actually caught red
handed in our shoWrooms, shipping
A.
pose Of using them in copies of his
|. own fabrication. He actually came to
our opening equipped with a fragment
! or razor blade attached to his finger.
While he examined the models he
would deftly detach the labels. What
. aroused our suspicion was that he
stopped down to adjust his shoe-laces
rather too frequently. We watched
him closely and saw that he was stuff
ing the labels into his shoes.
Confession Is Obtained.
We asked him to withdraw into
another room and remove his shoes.
lie protested Indignantly, Of course.
I but We explained that If he preferred
we would have him searched at the
nearest police station. He confessed
and threw himself. SO to speak. on
our mercy"
And were YOU merciful"" we in.
quired
In way, yes, we did not prose
cute-although we knew we could get
A conviction and even Jail sentence
for plain theft. We devised a pun
tshment to fit the crime"
What was it?"
Mrs. Cross smiled again
We made him buy directly from
ne as many dresses as he had labels.
He is one of our best customers to-
day"
o