“To give a true impression I think detailed dress accounts should
cover three years’ expenditure; things like, _e.g._, winter coats and
best evening dresses cannot come out of the same year’s income on a
£40 dress allowance. In considering the effect produced for the money,
people should certainly state whether they are a ‘stock’ size. I can
wear nothing ready made. People who can may reduce the cost of all
their outer garments by about half.”
No. 7 (a clerk), who is perhaps more representative of the middle class
working women of the future than the others whose accounts are given
here, inasmuch as she appears to regard bicycling, tennis, hockey,
society, and pretty dresses as being as much the right of the girl
wage-earner as of her stay-at-home cousins, has given me the list of
additions to her wardrobe made by her family during the year, the
items being: one pair of good evening slippers, one blouse, one dozen
handkerchiefs, one lace collar, a total value of £2 4_s._; and sundry
veils, ribbons, and belts, value not known.