A TROUSER TROUBLE.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 188, 9 August 1924, Page 11

A TROUSER TROUBLE.

TO CREASE OR NOT TO CREASE? I THE FINISHING TOUCH. j j ' HOW IT STRIKES THE FEMININE MIND. ' 1,. - ; "Why rlo men crease their irousers| down the middle? I suppose the. poor! fellows must do something to be fashion- j able, but I prefer to see no crease at all. i Three men walked in front of-me in the j street this morning. One had his trousers : <rea«ed down the front. ,-,ne down the, ' sides, and the other had no creases at, ; all. The latter looked much smarter j than the orher two." This is a copy of a letter written to the editor of the "London Daily Mail" j by one who signs herself "An Ordinary j Woman." Little did she think, as she penned this epistle, that she was raising; an all-important question. "Why.' 7 she! asks, "do men crease their trousers down j the middle: She is nut inferring, although as the lines stand it would be! excusable for one to believe so. that they ■ would be all right it rivascd elsewhere.! She. wants to know why men crease their j trousers at all. It liny never have '. occurred to her that there arc many! people who are asking the opposite ques- I tion —why many men do not crease their! trousers. This (rouser creasin™ as males who; indulgu in it. know, is a business that! cannot be too highly estimated. A con- j noisßour in dress would, if asked why he : wore creased garments about h.A legs.' i look aghast for a while at the foolish- i ness of the question, and • nen tell you that he would rather we.-r none at* all | than creaseless unes. Creases are a sort j of dominating factor in a man's dress—l the finishing touch to a glad array. Those who worry about these things could no more be seen in uncreased 1 trousers than they could wear a white tie. | with a dinner suit, or brown shoes (or gaudy socks) with evening dress. It isn't done, as they say. By a remarkable coincidence, there ■was in the same, paper in which the "ordinary woman's"' letter appeared an article on "The Importance of Clothes." ! The value of good appearance, said the ■writer, was inestimable. lie 1 Id Lowpositions could be won and lost by clothes-—how a business man would certainly select from among a number of applicants , for a position the young fellow with the neat clothes, clean'boots and spotless linen. "Men are wanting to get back to a conception of elegance without going ns far as the dandyism of Brummell," lie said. -Those men who. during and after the war, were careless about their at tiro are now showing better taste and a desire to be worthy of women's regard. They are paying'morc atten+ : on to the details of their dress, thus showing that they realise, the importance of clothes.'' That's where the crease comes in. Imagine a beautifully i . cut suit, elegant shoes, wonderful neckI t'e—but uncreased trousers. Inconceiv- • able! The creases, as was said before, ' add the final touch. I The lady of the letter says that she prefers no crenses at all, but the weight of opinion is against her. Those who study the question & ay that women are very impressed by clothes. A man wrote to this paper the other day and ! said: "In these days, if a man cannot dress in a manner which will attract the female he has a small chance of making a match." There, again, one can see the importance of the lines laid, down the trousers. A man may not be able to i afford extravagant clothes, but if he creased the trousers of his one Sunday suit it is a point in his favour. By that little simple action the lady of his heart can see that he is at least frying to win her regard. On the other hand, he who allows his trousers to slop about his legs like bags may be doomed. One can imagine a painful scene, something like this: "Xo, George, I cannot marry yon. \ou haven't even tried to creaie your trousers, so please do not try to press ! your suit with mc." Going back to the letter, we see that the writer remarks that one of the men had his trousers creased down the sides, and one i!Ot at all, the latter looking much smarter than the others. As far as the creases down the sides go, one agrees triih her. One had heard that it ■was being done on the Continent, but it leaves most people, cold. For one thing nothing would bo more consistent with producing bagginess, and that is a thing men abhor. Creases down the middle, while not infallible, are distinct advantages in preventing the trouble. In any case the idea of creases at the sides seems lacking in something. One might just as well have the legs of the lower garments aecordeon pleated, or wear kilts for instance. After all the whole business is just a matter of opinion. Youths and men sleep on, iron, buy presses and go to all sorts of extremes to keep their trousers pressed —others never care a jot. Genius. 1 they say, is expected to be sloppy, for ' his mind is far away on other things, but this of course, does not mean that every man -who has baggy and uncreased trousers, is a genius. Lord forbid! Then, although the opinion seems to be that creases, amongst other things, have a good impression on the fair sex, it is only natural that there should be some of their number -who care nought about the trousers as long as the man inside them is acceptable. In anj' case, one hopes that this is so. In the old days, in order to secure permanent creases, strips of material were sewn down the middles of the trousers—the wider the strip the more fashionable. These days, it is the worry of Rome poor fellows' lives, how to retain their ''razor-like" creases and keep their trousers elegant. Which brings us Ito the story of Johnny Bellchambers. llt will be remembered by O. Henry's ' readers that, the great worry of Johnny's life was his attire. He loved elegant. clothes like a child loves its mother. Hp saw that they were always perfect, but was never satisfied. Suddenly he disappeared. Years afterwards some of his old friends were visiting a remote monastry in Europe.. As the tourists stood in tlie hall, the cassocked monks passed on their way to prayer, and to the astonishment of the tourists, Johnny Bellclinmbers brought up the An audience with monk Bellchambcrs' was obtained, and the first question put to him was why he had chosen this monastic life. His answer came: "At last," .-aid Johnny Bellchambers, glancing down at his heavy cloth cassock, which hung about his legs, "at last I have found a garment that will not bag at the knees."