SECRET DRESS SHOWS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17571, 23 June 1925, Page 8

SECRET DRESS SHOWS.

FRENCH GOWNS DISPLAYED IN PRIVATE HOUSES. PROTEST CF STORES. J I/ONDON, .April 29. I Secret dress shows in Mayfair aro causing increasing uneasiness among drapers who own shops in the WestEnd. A newspaper representative was informed that tlie Drapers’ Chamber of Iracle has protested against the action oi foreign dress designers, who take a suite of rooms in a London hotel for a few flays in order to sell clothes to fashionable women. It is pointed out that such competition is unfair, because no charges are incurred for rent, rates, taxes, wages, light, heat and advertisement. A new form of competition has now developed in the dress shows held in private houses in Mayfair. Women who shop occasionally in Paris ore asking their dressmakers to accept tho hospitality of their town houses in order that the latest French frocks may bo sold to their friends Tho French dress designer, who probably adjusts bis bill 'accordingly, is naturally delighted at the opportunity to run v.hat amounts to a branch establishment in London where, without tho running expenses of a .London shop, li© is able to sell his dresses to well-to-do women. • MOST UNFAIR.’’ Having none of the ordinary expenses of the London dress designer, he is able to sell his dresses at a reduced price. The great London stores and the famous London dress designers do not suffer much from such competition, but it hits hard the smaller dress designers who aro just beginning to get known. On© such designer said to a Press represen tati re : “ One of my customers cam© in. yesterday to give a small order. About this time of year she usually orders several new frocks, but she (old me that she would defer her orders until she. had seen some French dresses which are to be shown in a few days’ time at the house of a friend.