COST OF LIVING

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 19, 23 January 1926, Page 16

COST OF LIVING

PRICES TWENTY YEABS AGO.

To read of dress prices of twenty years ago is like a fairy tale to the harassed woman of to-day, battling with short allowances and high prices to carry out tho dictates.of fashion. It is also a complete answer to those who complain of the extravagance of the modern womaji compared with her sister in Edward's reign. I found the fairy tale in an old English magazine of 1905. Dress prices in England have always been slightly lower than in Australia or New Zealand, but the increase in twenty 3'ears baa been in the same proportion. The magazine detailed various dress allowances for the girls of those days. Since it made provision for boating, dancing, tennis, and riding, the girls referred to must have been well off. But tho prices! Listen—

Dressmakers would make everydaywear frocks for from 15s to 20s. What philanthropy! With blue serge at Is 6d a yard, "nun's veiling" at Is 3d, and beige at Is, v. new dress would not be the considerable item it is now. -When washing-muslin "suitable for tennis frocks" .could be bought at 4Jd a yard no girl with clever fingers need pay more than half-a-crown for the frock. Forty-five shillings would buy a boating costume of cream serge at a good shop; £3 a "plain gTeen vejlvet dinner dress, cut low back and front," and 2 guineas a black Bussia'n net evening frock. At an Oxford street shop a lady's tailor-made cloth costume could be made to measure for 12s 6d, a smart black serge jacket for 325, and a tweed waterproof coat for a guinea. The thought almost brings tears to one's eyes!

Shoes might almost have been given away. A pair of "exquisitely embroidered dance shoes," wrth buckles, for 10s 6d; strong tan walking shoes for 7s white kid evening shoes for 3s Hid; patent court shoes for 4s 6d; and' a pair of black velveteen honso slippers for Is ll?d. What a world to live in! Good silk stockings were 4s, fine black cashmere 2s 6d, and lisle thread Is Hid a pair. "Undies" were made from nainsook at Sd, lace at Id. and embroidery at 3d a yard. A white embroidered petticoat was 4» 6d; corsets, which many can now rub off their bill, cost Is lid or 2s' lid. For all but the best occasions a straw sailbr hat at 2s 6d or 3a 6d was quite sufficient; 10s would buy a toque covered with palecoloured flowers, and 12s 6d a "best trimmed hat." With a heart-rending ,vision of kid or doeskin gloves at 2s I6d or 2# lid; let us end this tantalising 'glimpse intp ; a world that may never I come back.