This was not, however, the end of efforts to protect original designs. Magazine and newspaper ads in the late 1930s, both those of manufacturers and of department or specialty stores, often added a copyright line at the bottom of the page, hoping in this way to at least provide legal recourse if garments were copied. A New York Times Bonwit Teller ad from 1938 with a copyright statement at the bottom also had captions for two of the dresses that read, "Like Molyneux" and "Suggesting Mainbocher."(75) One author suggested as the reason for the rise of wholesale dress manufacturers in St. Louis that "nowhere else...are style piracy regulations being as effectively enforced as here...The Style Piracy Bureau of the Associated Garment Industries of St. Louis has the co-operation of the Ladies Garment Workers Union. Members...refuse to work on a design that has been adjudged by a constantly sitting trial board to be a copy of another maker"s design."(76) A 1930s study of the dress industry by Helen Everett Meiklejohn, quoted by Bernard Roshco in his 1963 book The Rag Race, summed up the issue. "It is this close relationship between copying and adaptation which suggests that the property right inherent in a dress design is difficult to establish and to protect...Dress designers conform to fashion trends and the most brilliant designers are 'adapters'."(77) Roshco wrote of his own time: "A manufacturer of low-priced dresses offers his idea of ethical copying: It's fair to exercise one's judgement of style by copying from higher-priced firms, but another matter to copy from direct competitors."(78)

It is difficult to evaluate and compare prices between custom and ready-to-wear, since ads and features for made-to-order imported or even American-designed models in Vogue and Harper's Bazar rarely included prices. Store and manufacturer ads for ready-to-wear usually listed prices, however, and the range for ready-to-wear is considerable, even as it is today.

A Vogue article from 1915, "Frocks and Gowns Made To Order," gave estimates from dressmakers on producing day, sports, and evening wear. Vogue cautioned that "the out-of-town reader should perhaps be warned, however, that these are New York prices and that really good work of this kind is very highly paid. The well-known dressmakers of today seldom make even a simple costume for less than $150, and the prices rise from that to $500." The article went on to suggest that careful attention to ready-made clothing could provide the basis for a "smart" wardrobe, but that "when distinction and individuality are required in a dress, however, it is better to have it made to order." Prices quoted from smaller dressmakers for a silk day dress (still New York prices) averaged $50 to $60.(79)

Elizabeth Hawes explained the pricing of a custom-made dress as of 1938 in Fashion is Spinach. The labor of the workers who made an average garment requiring fifty-five hours of work came to $44. Cutting the fabric and fitting the dress added $16.45. A moderately priced fabric might cost $5 a yard, and an average dress might take seven and a half yards for a total cost of $37.50. In addition, a charge of $16.71 for direct "production overhead, workroom manager"s salary, stockroom costs, muslin, pins, sewing machines..." and $15 for the design had to be added. Hawes estimated that indirect overhead costs such as rent and utilities, sales staff, clerical help, etc., added about a third again to the price of the dress, or $59.61 on her example. This gave a total of $189.27, which Hawes stated would be rounded up to a selling price of $195. A dress or suit requiring more labor or material might easily cost $400.(80) By the late 1930s, when Hawes was writing, it was not only the custom-made dress that might cost upwards of $200, but expensive ready-to-wear as well.