Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 209, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 September 1913 — TWO SUITS A WEEK [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

TWO SUITS A WEEK

Fine Clothes Help Spanish King to Keep Throne. —r Monarch Believed to Bpend More Money on Wardrobe Than Any Ruler Except Czar of Russia— Wears Startling Vests. London.—The king of Spain is the most elaborately attired monarch in Europe. It is doubtful if the youthful monarch has ever been seen more than half a dozen times in the same suit, and it is certain that there are many suits in which he has been seen but once or twice. When he takes a fancy to a particular tweed or cloth he will often order a dozen suits from it straightway and wear each but two or three times. If hn tires of the material before ; he has worn the whole dozen he will have the lot put out of the royal wardrobe. It would be difficult to say how many suits of clothes the king of Spain orders in the year. The number greatly varies. Sometimes King Alfonso will order as many as a couple of dozen suitß at a tijne, while at other times he will give his tailor, or rather one of them, for he patronizes several, an order for but one or two suits. The king of Spain keeps from 100 to 160 suits in the royal wardrobes and buys on an average of 100 suits a year. His majesty’s bill to his tailor alone averages $6,000 a year, of which sum

London tailors get a good share. There is one London tailor who, when the king of Spain was the guest of the duke of Westminster at Eton ball some little while ago, took an order from the Spanish monarch for 40 suits. The tailor was asked by wire to go to the duke’s/ residence, and returned to Loudon with the largest single order he ever received in his pocket There is no monarch who is so punctilious about being dressed In the extreme of fashion as his Spanish majesty. Any suit the, cut of which has become in the least out of date is at once put out of the royal wardrobe, thoqgh it may only have been worn by the king once, or possibly not worn at all. The king of Spain, has not any particular fancy for any material (except perhaps a striped flannel for summer wear) so far as the pattern goes. He appears equally often in light and dark clCthes of different patterns, but he never wears a heavy material of any sort. His majesty has a particular liking tor fancy waistcoats. He buys dozens of them and pays from sls to $25 apiece for them. In waistcoats alone he spends at least SI,OOO a year. When he came over to the Bngftsh court in 1905 to woo the then Prin-

cess Ena he had in his wardrobe some waistcoats of rather more remarkable pattern than was possible even for a monarch to wear, in England at all events, without being thought to violate good taste. Clearly a hint had to be given to the young monarch on the matter, and bis royal host, the late King Edward, with characteristic tact, thought of the best way of doing this without offending the royal guest. The Princess Ena was instructed to say something .on the subject to King Alfonso, and thereafter his majesty was fiever seen in a fancy waistcoat except of the most correct pattern according to English notions. The king of Spain, like all very well dressed men, is extremely particular about having ties that harmonize correctly with his clothes. He purchases about 100 ties in the year, which cost him from $5 to $lO each, and buys most of them in Paris. On shirts the Spanish monarch spends about the same as he does on ties. . His polo shirts cost him sl6 apiece and are made of the finest silk, and be puts a dozen of them out of the royal wardrobe every season. King Alfonso changes his collar and shirt three times a day, and rarely wears a shirt that has been laundered more than three or four times.

King Alfonso of Spain.