NO-HOSE FAD.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 112, 14 May 1925, Page 17

NO-HOSE FAD.

DISPLAY AT HOLLYWOOD. MOVIE ACTRESSES DENOUNCED. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SAX FRAXCISCO, April 14.

A panorama of bare legs^—some of them declared to be the prettiest in America —has caused a mild sensation on Hollywood boulevards, the promenades of the cinema actresses of the movie world.

The no-stocking craze has swept the movie colony, and the stars of the silver sheets are getting back to nature, or economy, legs first. All Hollywood, except the hosiery dealers, applauded the latest revolt against fashion, as the film stars paraded the streets with their naked or stencilled ankles.

Thejjrst hot breath of 6pring caused the style revolution, although some of tiie bare-legged beauties declared it was a boycott to protest against the high prices of hosiery. Abbreviated skirts and low shoes or sandals enhanced the effect. A dab of rouge accentuated dimpled knees, and trim ankles were embellished with ringlets of white or pink pearls. A few of the stars displayed a natural tan; others achieved a bronze effect through the art of make-up. Alluring designs were stencilled on shapely calves.

Dorothy Kevicr ivas ono of the first to appear on the boulevard without her stockings. She wore knee-length skirts, saixlals, and a coat of natural tan.

Nita Kaldi, screen vampire, had a serpent stencilled on each leg, and a touch of rouge on both knees.

Anita Stewart wore a pink pearl ringlet round her left ankle, but kept her knees well hid with a regulation-length skirt.

Jacqueline Logan was just stockingless —not a touch of make-up showed. ( lara Bow, diminutive flapper, had her

•'million dollar legs" painted a rich bronze hue from the knees down. Pauline Garon, who shocked even Hollywood recently when she quit cigarettes and started smoking a pipe, has also discarded her stockings.

Viola Dana and Clara Horton were other well-known screen players who appeared on Hollywood boulevards minus the regulation hosiery. "One might as well go bare-legged as be seen in flesh-coloured hose," said Miss Horton. Mac Busch, who tried to start the fad two years ago, remained stockingless as the fashion spread. She has not worn hosiery for two years.

Hollywood Clerics Busy. Hollywood's bare-legged fad drew a broadside of protest from indignant preachers and clubwomen, and Dr. James Whitcomb Brougher, famous Baptist minister of Los Angeles, commenting on the immodest craze, said: "It is a disgrace—Hollywood is degenerating to a state of savagery. The movie actresses who parade the streets without stockings have exceeded the limits of decency. They should be banished to a desert isle."

"Fighting Bob" Shuler, noted Methodist divine, believes the film colony has gone "morally bankrupt." "We are lowering our ideals even to notice the things the motion picture actresses do nowadays," he remarked.

"They can run around without their 6tockings if they wish. But they are setting a bad example for the nation's young girls. It will be a shame if stockings are relegated to the same scrap-heap as the corset. I wonder what they will discard next?"

Mrs. Marion Whiting, prominent American society and club woman, questioned the "sanity" of women who appeared on the streets without stockings.

"There must ba some strange Teaßon behind this extreme style," she said. "A track athlete removes most of his clothes for an obviously good reason. Something, perhaps the desire for advertising, has caused the actresses to appear on the streets with part of their clothing removed. If it is true they are merely seeking notoriety, they are certainly acting in bad taste." Mrs. Agnes Zucarra, another Los Angeles club woman, declared she was "shocked" at the apparent immodesty of the screen stars. "But," she added, "the short skirt looked evil several years ago, and we finally became reconciled to it. If the fad of going stockingless wins favour with younger women of the country, we will have to accept it like we did the short skirts." •

Meanwhile, the non-stocking craze swept on, and it was reported that shop girls and the female students at the University of Southern California had joined the Tanks of the barelegged on Hollywood Boulevard, but this caused Mrs. Helen M. Laughlin, dean of women at the University mentioned, a seat of learning which is located near Hollywood, to deny that any "co-eds" had discarded their stockings.