MEN AND UMBRELLAS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19759, 9 April 1926, Page 5

MEN AND UMBRELLAS.

’DECREASE SINCE THE AVAR. With reference to the statements contained ill' an “open letter” to the Prince of Wales which recently appeared in a Paris newspaper appealing to him to check the disappearance of the “umbrella habit” among men, a large manufacturer said to a press representative a few weeks ago: “The sale of men’s umbrellas lias declined by nearly 60 per cent, since the war. There appears to be no tendency towards a further decrease. The drop wus made and completed in the winter of 1914. and the figures have remained stationary ever since. “The truth is, I suppose, that the men who served in the war, lost the umbrella carrying habit, and acquired a healthy contempt for a shower of rain. On the other hand, the sale of women’s umbrellas has largely increased in recent years owing to the change in style of the modern feminine article. The composition which has replaced wood for the handles of umbrellas has enabled manufacturers to brighten up women’s umbrellas both in colour and general appearance, so that to-day it is used not only to keep off the rain, but as an additional article of feminine adornment.” The op-in letter to the Prince as the leader of fashion both* in 1? tance and England appealed to him to carry an umbrella when it rains; “to carry it with ostentation, with pleasure, with affectation, and with chic.