DRESS DESIGNS STOLEN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20058, 22 September 1928, Page 2 (Supplement)

DRESS DESIGNS STOLEN.

MEMORISING FROCKS. TROUBLESOME " CUSTOMERS." Assistants in many London shops have become aware of the existence of a newkind of troublesome " customer." It is by no means uncommon for a woman to try on a dozen frocks without making a purchase. But indicision is not always the reason why nono of them is bought. After taking up half an hour of the assistant's time the visitor smiles sweetly and says she is " frightfully sorry" that she has been unable to find anything to suit. But one of theso apparent customers revealed the secret in a conversation that was overheard in a London shop a few weeks ago. Sho had asked to be shown dresses priced at anything up to ten guineas, and at tho end of half an hour tho assistant left her despairingly to find another frock. As the assistant returned she hoard her " customer" say to a friend: —"My dear, I havo it at last. Just make a noto, will you? You see how the tucks arc arranged and the way the lace is put in, and the length of tlio skirt, and the shapo of the sleeves. It suits mo perfectly; I shall be able to get the material for about ss. lid. a yard, and tho dress won't cost me 305." " We are aware that this kind oF thing exists," said the head of a dress department, in a London store to an interviewer, " but it is almost impossible to stop it. The customer appears anxious to buy; even if tho assistant does not Icavo her alone sho can memorise what she has seen. It is tho homo dressmaker who is tho culprit. "If this kind of woman cannot visualise herself in a frock of the design of which sho has seen in print, or which she has seen in a window, she comes into the dress department and tries on a dozen dresses until she finds one she likes. .Then sho goes home and makes it."