PARIS FASHION SLUMP

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 521, 26 November 1928, Page 11

PARIS FASHION SLUMP

FAMOUS FIRMS CLOSING THEIR ATELIERS DRESS PIRATES Fashionable dressmaking, the industry de luxe of, Paris, is undergoing a severe crisis. ' Business during the summer has not been good, and prospects for the winter are had, says an English paper. In spite of big efforts made by the ’•fashion kings,” orders from rich customers are scarce, and a number of famous firr»s have closed several of their “ateliers” and considerably reduced their staff. Others, who have big houses on valuable sites in the centre of the capital, are credited with the intention of closing their businesses and selling their buildings to banks or business houses. The causes for this serious crisis are numei-ous. Paris is the world’s centre for dress “creations,” but the famous Parisian firms who create new models are not protected against dress pirates. New models are often circulated by American and German firms before they are shown in Paris. American firms, indeed, have come to an agreement for the purchase of models In Paris. They buy only a few and these are reproduced by all the members of the “ring.” Owing to high tariffs in other countries and to taxes on exportation from France, foreign customers can obtain in their own countries reproductions of Parisian models much cheaper than if they bought them in Paris.