KING ALPHONSO'S CLOTHES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18275, 16 December 1922, Page 2 (Supplement)

KING ALPHONSO'S CLOTHES.

AN EXTRAVAGANT MONAROH.

OVER 100 SUITS EACH YEAR.

The Kin* of Spain is the most elaborately and expensively attired monarch in Europe. It is doubtful if the youthful monarch has ever been seen more Iran half a dozen times in the same suit, and it is certain that there are many suits in which he has been seen hnt onw or twice. The King keeps from 100 to 150 suite in the Royal wardrobes, and buys on an average 100 suite a year. His Majesty's bills to his tailor alone average £1500 a year, of which sum London) tailors get a good share. There is no monarch who is so punctilious about being dressed in "the extreme of fashion as his Spanish Majesty. Any suit, the cut of which has become in the least out of date, is at once put out of the Royal wardrobe, though it may have been worn by the King but once or possibly not worn at all. He has not any particular fancy for any material (except perhaps a striped flannel for summer wear) bo far as the pattern of it goes. He appears equally often in light and dark clothes of different patterns, but he never wears a heavy material of any sort. His Majesty has a particular liking for fancy waistcoats. He buys dozens of them, and pays from three to five guineas apiece for them. Like all veiy well-dressed men, he is extremely particidar about having ties that harmonise correctly with his clothes. He purchases about 100 ties in ftie year, which cost him from 25s to £2 10b each, and buys most of them in Pans, On shires he spends about the same as he does on ties.

King Alfonso changes his collar and shirt three times a day* and rarely -wears s. shirt that haa be«n laundered more than three or four times.

One way or another, King Alfonso on his ordinary attire spends about £2000 per annum, -which is the largest sum upent on dress • by any European Monarch.

The King of Spain's wardrobe rooms consist of three large apartments devoted respectively to. his clothes, underwear, and hats and boots.

The wardrobes are in charge of four valets, the chief of w&om reserves a salary of but £300 per annum, which is probably tho lowest salary paid to any man occupying a like position in any Royal household in Europe. But in point of fact the King of Spain's valet is quite as well t paid as any Boyal valet, and probably better than several, for he receives the' whole of his employer's cast-off clothing as a perquisite. At a low estimate this must be worth £500 per annum to the chief valet, for in addition to this he makes a substantial sum in commissions from fvarious tradespeople patronised by the Spanish Monarch.