Life April 9 1951 Page 111

continued on page 112

FASHION

WHITE VIOLETS AND SWEET PEAS ON ORGANDY MAKE EXTRAVAGANT FLORAL STOLE (FLOWER MODES, $60.00) TO WEAR AS EVENING WRAP 

Ready-to-wear Flowers 

DESIGNERS PLANT PATCHES OF ARTIFICIAL BLOOMS, ON SPRING STYLES 

Last year a couple of carnations on a suit lapel were enough to give a woman the feeling that spring had arrived. This year designers have put whole plots of artificial flowers on gloves, pockets, scarves and dress bodices. Roses are the hardy perennial of fake flowers but the rest of the crop varies with style from year to year, switching from last spring's carnations to this season's violets and lilacs, with daisies pushing up as usual for summer. The price of most of the ready-made floral accessories shown on these pages runs high because of labor. The $60.00 stole above, for example, consists of 468 sweet peas and 432 violets, all hand-finished and stitched in clumps on organdy. Women with the patience to sew on their own sweet peas can achieve something like the same result for about $10.00 with 32 clusters of ten-cent-store flowers at 29cents a bunch. 

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The average price of a new home then was $9000 about 2.56 times the yearly average wage of $3510. Which was about 2.34 times the price of a new car $1500. Today?