NOTES NOT ALLOWED

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 110, 12 May 1939, Page 14

NOTES NOT ALLOWED

POACHING PARIS FASHIONS

Visitors to the Paris collections this season always expect some new regulation which shall deal with the always-present question of modelstealing, states the "Manchester Guardian." Nobody is, of course, allowed to sketch, but this season only a few authorised persons were allowed to take any notes at all. This restriction was made at the request of American buyers, who have been finding that a few notes by skilled persons resulted in the copying of the model almost before it got to the United States.

Copying new models can be punished in France, but it is often difficult to prove. For one thing, too many people are in the secret. There are hundreds of workers in the big houses, most of whom have opportunities of giving away a new idea. Canvases of the new models find their way outside the house and some have been known to appear even before they had been shown at the house itself. At the collections everyone must be known to the house and strangers have to present full credentials. This does not prevent the stealing of models. But if these are stolen, there are equally people who will give away the thieves. Raids are made on less good houses who want to make of one expensive model a series of cheaper ones. This means that expensive buyers reject them. Every season there is the same trouble Even a sketch of a dress approximating a new model suffices for the buyers to complain. It is. not therefore surprising that new precautions are always being taken towards this persistent form of poaching, !