WOMEN AT THE RACES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19448, 6 November 1925, Page 3

WOMEN AT THE RACES

BIG OUTLAY IN DRESS. CALCULATION AT RANDWICK SYDNEY, Oct. 23. It is estimated that Ladies’ Day at Randwick—one of the features of the spring racing carnival—attracted no fewer than 20.000 of the feminine element. It is estimated that, for the display by these women of the very latest I spring fashions, the outlay on frocks, ' hats, shoes and stockings, bags, gloves and lingerie ran into the tidy sum of £220,000. This is .apart from “etceteras,” such as shingles, shampoos, marcel waves, manicures, face massages and motor-car hire. It is safe to say, according to a woman writer who has delved into the question in detail, and in a column ar- | tide in one of the newspapers, that the cost incurred by these 20,000 women 1 for the visit to Randwick on Ladies’ Day ran into the neighbourhood of a quarter of a million sterling. The spring gowns arc put down at the very low average of live guineas apiece, which makes a total of 100,000 guineas. So much for the frocks. Then there is the little matter of ■ hats. The majority of the newest and smartest hats worn were Bangkok in all colours. Real Bangkok's are not to be had under three or four guineas, so it is said, but the -writer, to be on the conservative side, has put the hats worn • for the occasion at an average of a guinea anil a-half each, which accounts for another 30,000 guineas.

There were also shoes and stockings. I Here, again, the writer does not make, an extravagant estimate, for she takes ' into consideration those who had to. compromise with cheap artificial silk ; stockings. Under those heads, shoes; and stockings, 40,000 guineas are ac- . count for another 20,000 guineas. i occasion, calculating again on the con-I servative side, are put down at half al guinea a pair. Bang goes another. 10,000 guineas’ Then there are hand- j bags, which, even at a guinea each, ac- ; ocunt for another 20,000 guineas. But all this is top-dressing. It does i not account for such things as jewel- | lery and sunshades, or for silken lingerie, which, it is reckoned, accounted for another 20,000 guineas. This, of course, is apart from all the money that went into the totalisator and the bookmakers’ bags. “Many a piece of black moire cuddled under the arm,” the -writer adds, “cost more than hundreds of women spend on all their clothes in a month. ’ _