"BEST DRESSED WOMAN IN THE WORLD."

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 258, 29 October 1921, Page 19

"BEST DRESSED WOMAN IN THE WORLD."

£ 1,000.000 N KOK 1..A C E. "I have to-day held in my liand what was declared to be the equivalent ot £1,000,000," says a special correspondent ol the "Daily Chronicle," from Nottingham.

It was in the. form of a necklace of 73 enormous pearls, the property of Mrs. Smith Wilkinson, of this city, who is known as "the Countess of Monte Cristo," and as "the best dressed woman in the world."

Mrs. Smith Wilkinson is <:omin£ to London for a shopping excursion. This is to be her tinal reconnaissance, so to speak, before a visit extending for ithree weeks, when she will, stay iu state in the best suite of a leading hotel.

•She will appear daily in at least four different gowns, all of them unique, and many worth hundreds of pounds; listen to [lie orchestra playing a fox trot specially composed for, and dedicated to herself, and wear her million pound necklace.

'".Most of my best things have already gone to London," .Mrs. Smith Wilkinson exclaimed gravely to me. "What I have here does not include my latest purchases; besides I shall be buying more to-morrow. Yon see, I shall require at least .'WO gowns, 200 hats, and 100 pairs of shoes for my three weeks' stay in London, besides opera cloaks, and other necessities. If I am the best-dressed woman in the world I have a reputation (o keep up, haven't I?

"I have spent fortunes," tlio lady coneluded, reminiscentiy. "At our hotel iu Paris," slip said, "there was a daring robbery, hut >the thieves mistook the room and entered that beneath mine. At the time they came I was in lied with the million pound pearl necklace round my waist."'