Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 202, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 September 1918 — Early Buying Is Not Best Policy [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Early Buying Is Not Best Policy

New York.—The trade, which means the vast multitude of people engaged in the making and selling of women’s apparel, has at last sounded a warning to those who buy-too far ahead of the seasons, advises a well-known fashion correspondent. The public has deplored this condition. It has been well known for several seasons that the average woman did not care to buy a straw hat in February and a velvet hat in July, or to have all her autumn clothes offered to her the first of September with the assurance that they were the fashions that would rule throughout the winter. She has been often betrayed, and that betrayal has not soothed her Irritation against those who sold'her the clothes. It is the fact also that the trade in turn has found Itself caught in a net that tangled and lnvolved.it, and compelled each individual to struggle for success in a manner contrary to the dictates of reason and sobriety. - Through this web of circumstances everyone has come to a feeling that something must be done in the creation of new fashions long before the season for which they are to be worn, and that the public must follow the lines laid down by the trade competitors. Right here lies the extraordinary gamble to women in buying clothes early in the season. Right here lies one of the greatest sources of money wastage. Thousands of women, who have no way of knowing what the fashions will be as the season advances, buy what is said to be new as the season demands a change. What they buy, in September has probably been bought by the shop in June. TO keep up with the rising tide’ of forehandedness, the manufacturers make the clothes earlier and earlier, and the ready-to-wear shops and department stores, as a rule, buy these clothes as early as the manufacturers make them, and get them out at the very moment there is a slight demand for them. What happens? In October and in April the real fashions come out for each season. Hundreds of women —nay, thousands —• are faced with the fact that they have bought gowns, or wraps, or hats that are not in keeping with the new clothes. They have bought clothes arranged six months before the authentic exhibitions of new and seasonable apparel. What happens next? The woman who can possibly scrape up enough money to buy a new outfit does so, and she also spends extra money on a seamstress or little dressmaker to have her other clothes remodeled. Therefore, she spends twice her allowance on clothes. Panic Has Produced Careless Buying. Many of the traders in apparel realize that panic and a form of commercial hysteria have resulted in a large amount of early buying, which is not fair either to the individual or to commerce. Every shopper has shared the

same experience this last year of being told that it is wise to buy at once the articles needed, because they might .not be obtainable at a later day. This has resulted In a certain measure of hoarding, which the government does not allow in food. It has already ,resulted in severe waste of Individual

money. Women, feeling the press of this panic, have gotten clothes in advance of the season, and they now find that there are just as many to be had as six months ago, and that the shape and texture have changed. . It would be a far wiser method of spending one’s money to buy a little, at the necessary time, representing the best there is at that moment There will always be material of some kind. Even if the world is reduced to whole garments of sewn fig-

leaves, there is no reason why any one woman should wish .herself out of the picture. Let her go along with the momentum of the hour and buy and wear garments of fig leaves. K The public is beginning to see the wisdom of buying a small amount at the moment it is needed. It should be preached in every possible form of propaganda that this is the wise way to live during war time. Rest assured that if the public buys up all the stock of qge thing from a store, that store will De replenished the moment its supply is exhausted. Of course, there are women who always demand quality. They prefer to have a badly cut gown, made in a past fashion, if they are sure that every thread is silk or wool, as the case may bq. But the majority of women are not inclined toward accepting that system of dress.

Therefore, let us start out in a new measure of reform, as soon as /this month is over, and face with no ilea of rushing into shopsTind buying everything that is offered because It is labeled "New.” Maybe it is, and maybe it isn’t. But a feeling of panic among buyers that now is the only chance to get enough clothes to carry one through the winter, results in the very thing that the government desires most to see avoided —reckless spending of money. So buy shrewdly, and not for hoarding. If there is to be economy in clothes, let it begin this week. It is at this time, between the seasons, that a woman can take thought of her wardrobe and twist and turn it according to prevailing fashion, in a way that will serveher until styles are more settled. Then, when she has to buy much, she will buy wisely and well. Help in Remodeling Clothes. Here are some prophecies that may help you to be economical and wise. One of them sounds like the first aid to an injured wardrobe. It comes direct from Paris. It is that checks, stripes and mosaic blocks are widely worn in whole suits and parts of suits. Can you imagine any piece of news more gratefully received than that which gives a woman a chance to make a new coat to an old skirt, or the other way around? There are colored stripes on- a white background, made of heavy woolen material and built into a skirt to be worn with any slip-on cuirass or short jacket of colored cloth or velvet. Skirts are narrow. As the government will allow shoes to be 8 inches from the ground, the skirts need not be lengthened. For the present they remain moderately short. What the near future will bring out no one can aay. (Copyright ISIS, by the McClure Newspe- —— par Syndicate.)

Ono of the new checked suits which Paris houses send to America. It is made with narrow short skirt and belted coat The .tali silk beaver hat has a double crown band of black velvet

This suit is of striped velours, with short skirt and belted coat. Notice that the French woman has taken to wearing mannish negligee shirts of white silk with four-in-hand ties, adopted from uniforms of American war workers. Sailor hat of white felt, banded withoblack satin.