Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 222, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 September 1912 — France Leader of Fashions [ARTICLE]

France Leader of Fashions

Immense Revenue Accrues to That Country Because of Its Acknowledged Supremacy. Jules Heuret, a French writer, asserts that In fashion France is still unrivaled. He has carefully investigated the state of affairs in Germany, England, Switzerland, Austria and northern Italy, and has come to the conclusion that France stands first in matters of taste. Her Jewelry designs and her models of furniture are the finest in the world, although England and Germany are selling well in both these directions, he declares. From fashion M. Heuret estimates' the revenue of the French at 150,000,000 francs. In Paris there are over 12,000 business houses employing from one to 100 working girls. For the whole of France the total of such establishments reaches 96,000, to which may be added 15,000 lingerie firms, 4,000 houses where embroldereeses and menders are employed. Thus there are 115,000 shops Where sewing is the Industry carried on. More than a million persons earn their living in this way, 940,000 women and 75,000 men. To the aggregate of a, million wage-earners by their needle must be counted 140,000 employers, large and small, of whom 26,000 are men and 114,000 women. This vast energy does not provide the means of

wage earning only for those occupied in the business; it resolves itself into a revenue of over 114,000,000 francs in the export trade of the country. When all the handiwork done for the use of the people living in France is added to the export trade, and

when a note is made of the strangers who reside in the country, and of thoses who make purchases of clothing or ornaments as they pass through, some idea may he gained of what is earned by French needlecraft. Hundreds of millions of pieces of silk, lace, embroideries, woolen stuffs, feathers, flowers and ribbons are sent into* other countries every year because Paris Is supreme in fashion.