LEG COVERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 292, 10 December 1929, Page 6

LEG COVERS.

The tyranny of trousers, of which women (now) know nothing, is fatal to. reform a masculine the revival of the sloppy cylinders of cloth, for the legs may bring about a revolution. Pbrty years ago in a celebrated trial Lord Eustctrj. was identified bv a witness who said he recngnised his lordship by bis trousers, "which, 'had enough cloth in one leg to make a pair for an ordinary man." The fashion soon died,, and there was a swing over to neatness, and ;(i moderate amount of grace when thousands o£ London's men were wearinj full knickerbockers, roll-top stockings, spats and shoes. We heard nothing of "plus-fours" and less of golf frcun the wearers, but in all weathers they wer<) happy and comfortable freed from wet cloth, flapping round the ankles' from the dread of "baggy knees" and from that horrid habit of "hitching up" the trousers to avoid "knee blisters." The "sports coat" which came into fasl jion at the same time, has lasted, like the blous a for women, until now in me form or another. The trousers from 1861 jontinuously until to-day have invariably ailed to contribute anything picturesque or artistic to the human figure. Sculptors and artists flinch from repr<j >ducing men in trousers *nd from the kilt "(to pantaloons, or knee breeches, there is no h.ope of comfort or grace when they are opened and loosened and made uto such shapeless t'Aings as the tailors struggle with and name shorts, or slacks, or ;rousers. My-tailor teJQs me that-the young nan who takes wages aw,a "cutter" now learns lis trade in six weeks .from a cutter's chart, md there is little diffeivvnce between machineitamped trousers and thctse these boys aire paid to cut. Old tailors can make trousers so cut ■. it the seat that they wilAjiot ruck up or leave ;he instep when the wearer sits, and by a gradual curve from to bottom the endency to "bag" is lessened. However, no ailor of any age has ma fle trousers to look ittractivc or other than liideous, and if once ve can dissociate knickerbockers from golf we leed never don trousers* again, for knee ireeches for evening wear,will replace them./ jook at your friends in court dress! Let us lowl down—and out—tho "Oxford bags," ,lready discarded by Lpndon. Let °us irder modified "plus fours," neither too full ror too tight, and encountyje local industry iy wearing New Zealand clofith and New Zeaand stockings—both of long-strand wool to turn the rain." BAGS.