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Show i SHOP TALK BY AMY ARMSTRONG Hjj HE uninitiated may have thought that all the new sparing Hi j "duds" were on hand at the openings of the local shops and H that all that remained was to discuss and criticise them, until HI a final decision as to what to buy could be reached. Far be it from H such. If you want to know how very far wrong such a "think" was, H'' just take a trip through the different departments and have a look, H first making a little prayer not to be led into temptation. H ' Buyers have been East again and new shipments are being re- H ceived daily, more wonderful even than the forecast promised. They H are being laid out as they come and hung around and placed about at H the angle which best shows off the lines and the materials to advan- H k tage, for conference visitors and for home folks as well to consider. M How is this as a trade last for Salt Lake? The manager of one m of our largest shops told me this morning that one afternoon during m their very short stop in this city a number of the women with the Bos- M ton Grand Opera company and Pavlowa came up to his sport de- flj partment, which he has only recently opened on a large scale, and 1 not only looked, but bought lavishly, everything from $35 to $75 suits J and coats. They have been in the East, they had just come from K the coast cities, yet they said that nowhere was there a more com- K plete stock and not anywhere had they seen collected in one place H such an assortment at such reasonable prices. The singing and danc- B ing artists are pretty intelligent persons, aren't they, aside from being Hll experts in their own lines? H And here is another snort tale H which is indicative ' of our prosperity H and. our taste for and desire to wear H good clothes. This manager told me H, also that -a certain silk jersey suit Bj which he is offering at the vory mod- H est price of $35 had. been demanded Bj during the past week to the tune of H about forty purchasers. Of course the H. suits vary as to detail, in color and Hj design so that they are toy no means H duplicates, and a very great many of H them were taken by out-of-town cus- H tomers who were in the city either H for conference or for the opera. But H that is a pretty fair record for a city H which ranks modestly down the line H and has not yet attained the numbers H of ono of the live largest and "best H sellers" cities. H There is so much news of the shops H this week that it is difficult to decide H where to make a start in talking H about things of interest. One brand H new idea is the combination of silk H jersey and fur In separate coats. Mole m is considered very good for this com- H bination and one coat is being shown H locally of rose silk with the mole, H another of royal purple with the H same, still aonther of green and the H natural color plush. They are all ex- H quisltely lovely, the trimming being H used about the collar, sleeves and in H wide bands around the bottom. H t-But the very newest of the ma- H teriols is the Kahki-kool, a sure H enough imported fabric, Japanese, H which comes in the plain colors, in H plain white and the stripes, suits and H coats being made of the combinations M of the stripes and plain or of all one H or tb 'Other. One shop is making a H specialty of a silk jersey coat at the HI popular price of $15 and of a suit at H Ht The buyer for this shop brings back H word from New York that the choice H k the moment there is the light gray H aria the light tan or bisque in the silk suit for dressy wear, both exceedingly exceeding-ly "springy" looking, and the best dressers wear the costumes, including the shoes of these shades which are so popular, fashioned of the washable kid. The shades of the silk and of the kid match exactly and the effect is "nifty" beyond imagination. For some reason, whether it be the price, which is necessarily rather high, or because they are so peculiarly attractive, these-high these-high boots of the light colors, while worn pretty generally, have not be- come common as do so many fads. The popularity of separate skirts, especially the silk ones, is on the rise. One store is showing chiffon taffeta stripes and plaids, and the stripes, by the way, all run round, at the moderate moder-ate price of $5.95, and there are serge combinations, too. New separate coats of the chiffon taffeta silks are in large plaids and some of the best styles have the new bell sleeves. A feature of some of the spring blouses being shown locally is the cape collar, cut either round or square. It is of expansive dimensions and in the thin Georgettes is often edged with satin. Where the waists are of this Jllmy material the large collars add body. Frills are good, too, and the yellows are of the best shades, some bordering on pumpkin. Maize and grey or maize and navy makes a clever combination. Here is something in which I'llr wager every woman will be interested. A tub silk petticoat. Think of It. Certainly Cer-tainly a long felt want. And what is much to the point is that they are to sell at $1.95. They come in the iblack and white plaids, in Dresden patterns and others. They do not split like taffeta taf-feta and! are soft and pretty as they can be. Ono exclusive woman's shop has just received a large shipment of dresses for afternoon and street wear partlcu-1 Jarly, the shipment Including likewise many sport costumes. They come straight from the east and are the newest things being shown there in the spring designs. They are of chiffon chif-fon taffetas, Georgettes and pussy willow wil-low satins, combinations of the different differ-ent materials or all of one material. They will be shown in rose, grey, navy and French blue and are very exceptional excep-tional values, such a large consignment consign-ment having been purchased at one time. Among the sport goods displayed hero are the suits, coat and skirt, and also the new sport dresses in the awning awn-ing stripes and sport materials. Many-of Many-of these have hats to match and dressy hats are being offered, too, including many flower hats. The white silk jersey cloths and the white wash satins sat-ins seem to be among the most popular pop-ular sellers in Salt Lake and it will not be long before they can be worn on the streets. Even now on the bright, pretty days they are seen. Here is a bit of shop news that is real news and believe me or believe me or believe me not as has been mentioned men-tioned before and elsewhere, it is absolutely ab-solutely true. The silk situation is a critical one and silks growing more popular every minute for every sort of dress and costume. I had a most interesting talk with the silk buyer of one of the biggest department stores, who says that buying silk in New York is every ibit as bad as being at the front in France and he is absolutely absolute-ly convinced of it. The story loses some of Its point in the re-telling because it necessarily lacks the graphic description of this very enthusiastic French gentleman. 'But," says he, "there was a day when the manufacturers ran after us. They would follow us out into the street and across the street, they would hold us in conversation for hours expatiating expatiat-ing on the qualities of their goods. But do they do so now? Indeed they do not. They sit in their chairs smoking smok-ing their cigars and they pay no attention at-tention to us unless we go to them. And even then they are not particularly particu-larly interested. "I had a difficult time getting rid of my money. Unique situation that, but absolutely true. I found it possible to buy the silks I wanted only through friends. For instance I was told privately pri-vately of a couple of lots of silk aggregating ag-gregating about eight or nine thousand dollars. I found that they were just what I wanted. There were other men waiting to look at them, but I happened to spy the, owner first and hustling up to him I asked him at what price they were to go. The deal was made then and there and I had gone after them practically before ever a price had been set on them." This he says is but one sample. He was able to fill his stock because he bought only the highest grade of silks and had the ready money with which to pay for them. His customers, custo-mers, he adds, will receive the benefit bene-fit of his being able to purchase in this way and what he was able to III l Ml i n nwiwn i WWWMtf nf.Mlfc. UCTMOTW save himself he will pass on as an advantage ad-vantage to those who buy from him. Silks will certainly be higher and by v fall he does not see how there will bo J'1' anyways near enough for the demand. But of one thing America should be proud. This man who knows and who has been in the wholesale business busi-ness in France, says that silks made here are now just as good as imported materials. Our country has made a great stride in the manufacture of at these fabrics which formerly it was j considered only the firms across the J water could have woven correctly. l Another buyer for this store returned re-turned yesterday from a trip to New York to tell us! that among the pret- $ tiest things are oytser and cream white skirts in the tussah silk to go with striped coats of the same material. ma-terial. Some of the coats are polka dotted instead of striped in the copen and rose, black and green. Some Harry Har-ry Collins sport things are coming on in the rajahB of ovarius colors with contrasting or white collars and cuffs. There is a navy blue tennis suit out of material which is a sort of den-ham, den-ham, pockets in front and all, and there are sofe dainty little flowered summer frocks in the organdies with the wired out bustle effect in the back which are charming. All white rajah dresses will be splendid for summer wear. In this same purchase are some exclusive ex-clusive navy blue models of imported gabaldines, twills and other materials, no two alike. The coats seem to be getting longer even in the taffetas and the greys, and black and whites, braid bound are extremely popular still. Skirts are still full and the guernsey cloth still among the chosen in rose, copens, white, orange and gold with the contrasting or white collars and cuffs like the rajahs. I found during the week at one of the popular "hattries" a hand embroidered em-broidered straw, which was quite the most out of the ordinary model I had come across and most awfully pretty. The summer hats are 'beginning to arrive ar-rive In earnest and there are many white horsehair braids and other white hats among them. Black and whites are good -with the large sailors ,k and the poke bonnets in the lead. This Manager tells me he cannot keep up with the demand for the latter. One 'black model was of straw edged with horsehair braid and with glycerine ostrich os-trich flat against the crown. Similar designs are much used in the 'blacks. An Andrea creation shows a Knox sailor with circular veil fastened to the crown, inspired by the original umbrella hat. This is 'but a very brief mention of the many models on display dis-play in this department. |