WHAT A GIRL SPENDS ON DRESS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 57, 30 November 1907, Page 11

WHAT A GIRL SPENDS ON DRESS.

What does it, cost a, girl to dress, in Wellington?' I havo heard the question discussed a good deal lately, and though I know something about it, I have been surprised at the high estimates-given. ■ I confess I. am extravagant,", said* one business girl, "but it costs me £1 a weok to dress. I havo. to,look, neat and. trim at all hours of. tlia'day, ; and tho wear and tear of business lifo 'is enormous. ' ' One has to wear nice • i things in rough weather bccauSo it docs not do to bo shabby at any time.- ,If I lived , at homo ,1 could do " with' very much less, because I could wear out .my old things m the :morning, but 1. cannot do that' in. the office." , ... ' ' ' • Another business girl named £2< a year as the sum she thought necessary, but she had .. to confess that.this .was'very.largely guess-, work, and: other., girls in- offices said the sum was altogether ', inadequate. ... Several of them wero inclined to think that £35 might coyer the year's expenditure, but others found £40 aIJ. tbo" ' little,"'aiid-, one 1 said she coild not,;d£it^fler i £sov :I ''';lt f , I 'is very difficult, to get an eStimato,Kecauso few v girls keep . accounts,',and they.have to,judge roughly by tho fact that they can save so much, or'cannot: save at. all,, out : of.'.'tjieir year's salary, Of course tram tickets run away with a great deal, and many pay board to their own parents, or help at home in other way?, but the fact remains that, the'' average girl in office work does spend a . large sum on iier olothes. '. •It is not easy to: ,say where . the money goes,, but probably two main causes for the expenditure are in the facts that, the. standard of 'dress must remain at the samo level all through tho working hours , of tho week, that there i.v no suitable time for wearing . very shabby things, and that t.lio business girl can givo very little time making of her own (clothes or to-their care and repair..' ■ It is really cheaper for., her to buy things ready made, or; to have them made , for'her,'than to give her leisuro houfs to sewing.'. There are many girls-who do their own sewing after office hours, but if that is good for their, purse it'is'very bad for their health, and it means'that they have to give too much'timo and thought-to dress, and too little to more important matters. j When it comes to the girl who us not in business it is harder to say what she spends in dress because there is no such' rough-and-ready help to an estimate as is provided by the knowledge of the salary a girl receives. Even when a girl has a dress allow- ; ance it is not safe to rerko'n that she dresses i on that . sum,' for probably tho''girl whoso paro'rits can afford to give her a 1 good dress allowance," also give her" handsome presents from time to .time, now a fur, and now an extra evening dress, that she really dresses beyond her .means,, .reckoning her allowance as her meains.' ; ; Many girls who have .leisure make their own .frocks and trim their own hats (by the'way jI am assured that nearly''all 'business girls' trim their own':, hats),.- so ..that ono. part of their wardrobe is procured ,at slight co-st), but this probably meaiis in tho end not that they spend less on dross than does >th'p girl in'an office, but that, they get" more .for their money. They pay less for their frocks, and haVe more' of them. V' 7