Increased Cost of Dress.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 10760, 6 May 1911, Page 4 (Supplement)

Increased Cost of Dress.

According to a French women's journal, the cost of dress has gone up in the last thirty years even more than the general cost of living. Thus in those happy days 35s bought a hat which met every reasonable, demand of fashion, and one could stagger one's rivals by spending £4 as a fancy price. Nowadays £3 or £4 corresponds to the the 30s standard, of one's mother, and -the fancy price looms large down a vista, of double figures. As for the simple morning or street frock that used to cost a couple of pounds or so, the dressmaker now charges anything from 12 guineas to 24 guineas for the costumes'for these purposes. People used to pay about £l2 to £2O for a fur cloak, but to-day they find £BOO a not unusunL figure. But, after all, is it not the case that the ladies of a generation ago were content with a standard which their daughters have left far behind?