it is necessary to take account, and which I will call "TRADE INFLUENCE."
In the making of fashions there are several forces at work. Of these the most important is that to which I have previously referred—Imitation. There is also what I may call Conservation—that is, a certain respect for precedent, and a desire to retain what has become habitual, a force which acts as a check upon the others, and which being, for example, most developed in England, restrains English people from adopting any new style or custom for many months after it has become general in France, and even in America. And lastly, there is Trade Influence, which invariably makes itself felt, and depends for its success on the first principle—imitation.
It is to the advantage of that large section of the people who make their livelihood by supplying the rest of the world with clothes, that fashions should change quickly, so that new clothes may be bought before the old have been worn out, because the latter have become outré. On the part of some people there is a constant demand for novelty; they do not like to wear things, imitations of which have been obtained by "Jack, Tom, and Harry," or "Mary, Jane, and Eliza." Consequently the tradesman's brain is busy to devise the novelties which are in demand. Failing this demand he will devise a novelty all the same, and, carefully introducing it to a select few, he knows that by imitation a large demand for it will soon be created. Now, to devise a real novelty is something which
