THE GREAT SPAT WAR

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 83, 4 October 1930, Page 25

THE GREAT SPAT WAR

Sartorial strife lias broken out be-, tween Washington and New York. The trouble.began when.'a picture of Mr. Warren Robbins, the White House ceremonial officer, appeared in New York newspapers.- • Mr. Bobbins was wearing a .silk hat, black morning coat, white waistcoat, and;' dark unstripod trousers, 'urned up at the ends. He carried a stick but-no gloves. Tailors in New^.York were shocked beyond ■expression, • s^ys 'the "Daily Mail." Mr. Joan'Friedman, who makes thirty suits a year for "the world's best-dressed, Yinanj;''>Y. Mayor Walker, sighed lugubriously, ""It is tragic." Other loading tailors averred that gloves and spats were <le rigueui- with a silk hat; nor could striped trousers bo neglected. "It is.a .shanie," they said, "that Washington-does - not enforce fashioi 'a " diet ates, * *

But tho State Department gavo a quick ' 'come-back.' 3 It replied, "Whito spats nvere discarded years ago by well-dressed diplomats. They are seen now only on Now Yorkers,;: who sometimes stray into tho capital, and a few ill-advised Congressmen." .: [I

On such fine points as gloves ';, and sticks the Stato Department remirked that metropolitan tailors had much: to learn and that Mr. Robbing's turned-up trousers were quite proper in Washington. . ' ' : i V

State Department officials aro sp.;incensed at the challenge to their orthodoxy in dress that they declare that Washington is two years ahead of New York in modes. They add sarcastically that sprits-"wero ...banished - fcjf- official decree in 1927; —'