"NO-STOCKING" CRAZE.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 1207, 12 November 1919, Page 7

"NO-STOCKING" CRAZE.

HOW IT STARTED IN PARIS. This is the tale the Paris correspondent ol a New York paper tells of how the new " bare-leggjeu" fashion came into hoiing:— Now that bare legs have I) 'corae perfectly proper in Paris it. lias been discovered that the craze was tlie result of an accident. An actress forgot to put her stockings on. And. it might be added, that the art oi Press agentiug has not been developed here to the extent it lias in America. This, it is claimed, was a genuine error which the quickness ot wit of Mile Jane Keuouardt turned into one ot the most-talked-of styles of a generation. LEGS HELPED HER.

Alter she had started it Mile I'cnouardt, v. ho is one of the loveliest comediennes in all Europe, bad to go through it. And. having the legs she has. she was able to do so. Hut there have iieen many opponents ol the style, among, them Mile Spinelly, whose equally impressive voice and legs have made io-r the most popular oi Parisian revue stars. Sin- wears silk stockings. One warm day in early summer Mile Reuotiardt was trying on some new gowns. Being in the sanctity ol her own boudoir, she bad neglected to put on stockings, though her feet were < nc.ised in perfectly good high-heeled white slippers. .Just as she had donned the most becoming of the new frocks she was reminded that it was time to start for the races. An ardent racing fan, forgetting her stockingless linihs, she sprang into her limousine and sped to the Lontiehamps track.

ATTRACTED ATTEXTHIX. Strolling through the paddock, she noticed that she seemed to be attracting a good deal of attention, which, however, she attributed merely to tlie celebrity that beauty and artistic talents bring to one—until a friend approached and whispered excitedly in her ear: '".lane, you've forgotten your stockings! " Taken aback for the moment. Mile Keuouardt swiftly recovered herself, 'and replied with pel feel composure: •' I haven't forgotten them ; I've left then; off purposely. It's a new fashion for this warm weather. Don't yon like it:-''

HE LIKED IT. The friend, being of the lesser sex, swore he had never seen anything more attractive, and rushed off to spread the tidings of "la nmivelle mode Renouardt." Before night all Paris had learned of Mile Bonouardt's innovation, and minor poets were composing odes to the white shapeliness ot her undrapod ankles. Within 24 hours the bare-leg epidemic had set in. Since then every fashionable Parisienne has appeared at least once without hosiery—every one except Spinelly. That haughty young woman flatly refused to Ikiw to tlie dictates of a fashion created by a rival in the realm of pulchritude. Her attitude was the more remarkable because she is universally billed as the possessor of " the loveliest legs in Paris," and because she had frequently revealed these interesting possessions in their natural form behind the footlights.

FLAWS CAMOUFLAGED. "On the stage, where fleshy flaws are camouflaged, yes." she said to her friends. " but out in the sunshine, never!" •" But your legs are perfect." they rejoined flatteringly. " Then they'll be still more perfect in silk stockings." she affirmed with .smiling decision. Mile Spinelly's viewpoint, it would appear, is that art—at least where exposure of the human form is concerned. —is superior to Nature. This doctrine is warmly contested by Mile Renouardt. '• When a woman's skin is white and her ankle well shaped," she said in a recent interview, " why should she hide either:- There's nothing immoral in bare legs, nor, for that matter, in bare feet."