Buying Binge

Wedgies will be widely worn in London this season (there is a two-inch limit on high heels). But there are plenty of reptile skins and blue kids, which are scarce in the U.S. Quality is pretty well up to previous footwear, but styles are unstimulating.

This was important news to London women who, heedless of the warning that they must make their present ration coupons last until September, were wearing out shoes faster than ever last week in their biggest shopping spree since 1942. Stores were jammed all day, although most articles were in short supply. So dense were the shopping swarms that it took 20 minutes to move a few blocks on busy Oxford Street.

Forgetting the ugly fact of coupons, hats and clothes (with the exception of utility wear) were half again as expensive as pre-Dunkirk. Hats were coupon-free, but in view of the sky-high prices, they might just as well have cost the coupon value of a coat. Last week smart London-designed hats cost from $30, and they were definitely not Paris models. For those, London shoppers willingly paid $50 and up.

Skimpy Skirts. Coats, suits and dresses in utility styles were easy to get, but were not very fetching. The material was good quality and long wearing, but skirts were skimpy.

Coats cost from $12 to $25, suits about the same or a little more. Wool dresses cost $10 to $25. These were price ranges for strictly utility wear which could be found without too much hunting. Glamor could be found only in the Bond Street (London's Fifth Avenue) or Grosvenor Street shops, which specialize in French models --and glamor was expensive last week.

Bond Street dressmakers were offering afternoon dresses from $100. But shoppers who ordered their dresses last week would not be able to wear them until September. Several of the better tailoring firms have advertised in the personal column of the Times, regretting that they cannot accept orders for the next six months.

Handbags were discouraging. Even in the bigger stores, like Selfridge's, Harrod's or Debenham & Freebody's, purses were made of imitation leather with no linings (price: anywhere from $8 to $20). Definitely inferior pocketbooks could be found from $3. Leather or reptile skin purses were priced from $40 to $60, and even the selection was meager in the extreme.

Discouraging Pots. Even more discouraging were pots & pans (favorite collectors' items despite the sharp, post-V-E-day cut in meat, milk, bacon, fats and sugar rations).* In Petticoat Lane is one of the best places to find kitchenware, hairpins and hair-curlers, a small enamel dishpan costs about $1.50.

Sleazy Lingerie. Sleazy lingerie was expensive, but easier to buy, chiefly because women were not willing to part with coupons for the sake of a chiffon nightie. (Linen sheets to go with the nighties could be had, by rare good luck, for $50 a pair; cotton sheets required a priority granted only to newlyweds or families recently bombed out.) They preferred to spend coupons on the less alluring "woolies" which kept them warm in unheated offices and homes. For the same reason, woolen underwear was scarcer.

Part of the shopping battalions concentrated on the pet shops. Since the V-2s stopped, there has been a big boom in dogs, cats and birds. Siamese cats (females, $35; males, $40 and $50) are favorites. Last week pet shops were deluged with orders for unborn kittens.

*Serious food shortages, due in part to labor shortages, threatened Britain last week. Bakers, short of help, feared a bread shortage as thousands of evacuees returned to London. One bakery with twelve ovens, normally producing 35,000 loaves daily, now produces only 12,000. Fish catches are enormous, but the labor shortage is making the handling of the catches very difficult. Late frosts have delayed new potatoes. Manchester, which usually consumes 1,500 tons of potatoes daily, got none one day last week. Liverpool is using its last potato reserves. When the food cuts were announced, Britons were promised more corned meats with a controlled price of 36-c-. The first muscat grapes appeared last week at about $16 a lb.; melons are still $10 each, peaches and nectarines $4 each. The egg diet is being supplemented by gull eggs at 25-c- each, turkey eggs at 60-c- each.

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