From 600 To Only 12 Shades Of Silk Stockings

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXVII, Issue 12486, 21 October 1938, Page 5 (Supplement)

From 600 To Only 12 Shades Of Silk Stockings

' 4 fashion controversy is often ini' ,idling but not always entertainthe suggestion of the Dyers’ 1 that there should only be ■ f shades of silk stockings has a lively discussion. A “Man * ttl e Street,” writing in “The

London, says: .ijlje colours of silk stockings may to be reduced from GOO shades twelve because of increased dyecharges.

'•The dyers have offered the hosiery •jiuifacturers a dozen standard ijdes at the usual rates, hut if smen demand more colours than ; ge then the price of silk stockings ril be raised. It looks like a crisis jine.

•Since the war, silk stockings have ■i®e(l an ever-increasing item in the

ainine budget

Necessity Not a Luxury

"The average girl thinks of them 3 a necessity rather than a luxury j her existence. “She will give Up her lunch rather endure the humiliation of a lad-

“Faced by this ultimatum from sdyers, how will she do now? Ac>pl a drastic restriction on her ioice of colours or pay a higher

“Young women don’t ask for lick, brown or flesh-coloured hose, ley demand two pairs of Sunset ilow, or Dove’s Breast, Sugar Buff, Am Gold, Gaiety, Sahara, Bracm, Dusty Rose and Copper Beach.

“The financial stake in silk stock--553 is now so considerable that one a imagine how solemn must have ra the debate in the Dyers’ Pederast! before they delivered their ultialum to British womanhood. "Something like £ 30,000,000 is ?ent annually in Great Britain on 4 stockings. Hosiery is the third agest textile industry in the counemploying 115,000 persons. Some 500,000 dozen pairs of artificial t stockings are turned out each w, and the output of real silk is tout 2,900,000 dozen pairs, "The stores say that silk stockings sre become the most popular form 1 presents from husbands, fiances ad brothers. have long since %ated gloves and handkerchiefs u second place. They are'the only went which tact suggests should Jniade in duplicate or triplicate. The Pear of Ladders

U is not ostentatious to give even l!l ' a dozen pairs of the same shade a a time. Women appreciate ‘spares’ 5 meet the haunting fear of ladders. The average girl, however, is a : *hlist about ladders.

It is, she thinks, entirely a mat"r of l uck - One pair may keep perfect integrity for weeks. A ■wnd from the same box will come ■shipwreck in a day. Life, says the Nosophic young woman, is like hat.

I fancy the silk stocking crisis soon be over—-and that it won’t Necessary to send Lord Runciman 3 Leicester to quell the disorders.” secretary of the Silk Associa“Mi says;—

. i(lea seems like a reasonable' ** fiction. Hundreds of shades, ail ’e’a lC f!^' n^lliec * an d all closely , r '' llbUng ° ne anothei '- mean a midship lor both manufactur:r a 'Kl dyer.

.'i'll" tbe bllyers ave pleased. a shop keepers, too, will be ’ eatl y benefited.”

yoims Up,,.. .. bt ’ 1 llave a colour ; sai ,, atloU in . a eostume which deia a “ a . certaiu shade of stocking , as »ot to clash. lUU ’f t 0 pay more if I want Siidi Ug it^ aUd probably s Pmid hours points ° ut the Y°rk--sfs asiainJ^ I'’ 1 '’ <of the nianufacturshades of ” lultlpl y ia S' endless fine «>««u^w 1 °" rBOU “ aa ' l,keill,te ' e Sust Wast ~ Pomm ousense. But we j d .. See vvhetb er feminine es not win 6 matters °£ fashion ‘•1 the end.” ° Ver ' sphmers and dyers

T ° dr ° P from 'sa; huildred to a

mere dozen,” facetiously comments the Manchester Guardian, “would be like telling a centipede that henceforward it must be content with no more legs than an ant.