FASHION CENSOR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14984, 4 May 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

FASHION CENSOR.

£10,000 WARDROBE.

Tub recent appearand , in Washington society of a woman from Muncie, Indiana, who proudly claimed social prestige because she was the possessor of six pairs of diamond-studded shoes and a wardrobe on which she spent £10,000 a year, has inspired an agitation among women of assured social position against ostentatious adornment.

It is now seriously proposed in the columns of one newspaper that women who resent vulgar display shall unite in selecting a "Queen of Fashion, whose pronouncements upon dress shall be authoritative as indicating good taste." Mrs. Calvin Gage, the sponsor of this suggestion, is particularly anxious that " thou queen shall be a woman whoso strength of character and soundness of intellect are such that she will not be swayed with 'every whim of the Parisian modistes." .

Women prominent in Washington society, on being interviewed regarding the desirability of a £10,000 wardrobe, assert that dress at the capital is ordinarily far from extravagant. One of them puts the average woman's dress bill at a mere £700 a year, this including six evening gowns,, five morning and afternoon dresses, furs, wraps, boots, stockings, and lingerie.