COLONIAL WOMEN

Taranaki Daily News, 1 December 1934, Page 19 (Supplement)

COLONIAL WOMEN

STANDARDS OF DRESS HIGHER. STYLES AND PRICES IN ENGLAND. When Rupert Brooke asserted that the women at Auckland were all badly dressed public opinion meekly agreed. But more than a score of years have passed since the young poet died, and those years have seen incredible progress. Communication between nation and nation has been speeded and fashion notes from the great world centres now .reach New Zealand within weeks. Reflecting styles at Sydney and Melbourne, society in the large towns of the Dominion parades with a sophisticated air, secure in the consciousness of being smartly and fashionably clothed. Europeans whose finances permit them to pay extravagant prices for their frocks naturally select creations unrivalled, almost undreamed of, in New Zealand. But comparing women of equal means, colonials probably dress better on the whole than Europeans. Interesting observations on this subject were made by the head of a leading New Plymouth drapery firm who has recently returned from a trip during which he lived at London for part of the English summer. “The people of New Zealand are quite well dressed in comparison with what we saw in the streets of London,” he said. “We were very disappointed with the English fashions. Colonials apparently have nothing whatever to learn in that respect.

“Every woman wore a winter coat there all day long, even in fine weather; rusty brown, frowsy looking, ill-fitting garments such as we could never sell in New Zealand. The women were dressed like the farmers’ wives one can see in small country towns here. I realised why bad lines are sometimes imported into the Dominion.- In England they are apparently ready sellers.” The big stores that he had heard so highly praised were also a disappointment to the visitor. Though only five or six stories high they covered a great deal of ground; but the large firms at Sydney compared favourably with them. He had tea in one of the most famous buildings but considered the surroundings much inferior to similar rooms at Auckland.

“At a sale at Harrods, a leading firm," he continued, “I was amazed at the prices asked. Coats ticketed at £3 for the sale would probably have hung fire at £1 with us. They were a poor type of garment—no fur collars, dingy and faded in colouring. Pullovers at 15s we would be lucky to sell for 6s. “In general, the prices obtained in the large stores were a revelation to me, and the condition and unattractiveness of their showroom and sale price lines were astounding. Ties, hats, boots and so on were offered at retail figures very much the same as in New Zealand. Considering that the goods are manufactured there I thought everything was very dear.”