Cost of Fashion

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 14, 1907

KNOWING the rapidly growing multitude of the wealthy in this country, it may be of interest to learn what it costs the wife of one wealthy man to dress in harmony with her set for one year. This is told in the following words in the November number of Everybody's Magazine:—

A woman who wishes the name of being well dressed, as fashion knows the term, must have at least five or six imported costumes; also an equal number of domestic afternoon and evening dresses and of tailor-made gowns. There must be an appropriate hat for every out-of-door gown; and these cost anywhere from $50 to $100 or $200 apiece. In summer, a fashionable woman must have forty or fifty lingerie gowns, ranging from the cobweb of lace to the simple mull, costing not more than $150. She must have morning gowns—she will pay $125 for a simple muslin with perhaps two yards of inexpensive lace on it. Half a dozen evening coats for winter, and an equal number of lace or silk for summer, are a matter of course. When the Irish lace crochet coats first became popular, one shop here sold 450 in a month, no one of them priced less than $200. And the accessories are in proportionate extravagance; for lingerie, handkerchiefs, scarfs, and fans $5,000 or $6,000 a year is a conservative estimate.

A pair of gloves is worn but once; and delicate shoes, made of imported leather to match the tint of a fabric, suffer a similar eclipse after a debut in a ballroom; for many women pride themselves on never wearing a cleaned garment. After two wearings they will send an imported gown to a second-hand dealer, receiving a $100 bill for the creation that may have cost $800. The dealer sells it to an actress starting on her tour, to the society leader of a small town, or to a member of the demimonde.

On the other hand, the woman who patronizes the cleaning establishments spends there from $1,500 to $1,800 a year. For when one pays $20 to have a lace gown cleaned after a single wearing; when gloves by the hundred and blouses fifty at a time are sent to be renovated, it does not take long to reach a sum that parallels the salary on which many a man supports a family.

And this scheme of dress costs one woman $100,000 a year.