WOMEN'S FORUM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 224, 21 September 1932, Page 10

WOMEN'S FORUM.

ECONOMY HINT. Last year's holiday beret, if it was of the knitted or crocheted variety, can be turned into one of this year's little caps by the simple expedient of undoing the elastic and either cutting or unpicking the outside two inches of the circle. The last rows of the work should be unpicked, so that an even edge is given all round, and the elastic can be rethreaded through this or a little crochet edging be added for the purpose. The wool which has been taken off the outside can bo knitted into a long narrow strip to form one of those queet little bows with which so many modern caps are surmounted. WOMEN IN THEATRE. A theatre that is exclusively feminine has been founded in Paris. The male element will be entirely excluded from its undertakings. Its plays will be written, produced, performed and supplied with incidental music by women only. Tho scenery, moreover, will be not only designed, but also shifted by women. The founders feel that hitherto, though tho place of honour has been accorded to actresses, men have jealously and wrongfully kept the roles of playwright and producer too much to themselves. The main object of the new enterprise is to enable women to take a more important part in the ordinary theatre. The "Studio Feminin," for so it is callcd, has established itself somewhat incongruously perhaps, in the Street of the Admirals. Research up to the present had brought the studio to tho distressing conclusion that masterpieces in drama by women are all too few and it therefore recently annourced a competition for women's play 6. The most successful and choscn play will be performed in the winter season. Out of the three hundred plays already received it is claimed that there are a hundred worth producing. SALESMANSHIP. Owing to the economy campaign there has of late been more service available for customers in shops, to an extent that is sometimes embarrassing. In America the saleswoman docs not speak to the customer until she is asked. This enables the latter to look round quietly and get some idea of what she wants. In England this would be thought remiss, and a customer is not usually left to herself at all. There is thus an immense difference between a helpful and a hindering saleswoman, since the customer only sees those things which are produced for her. Saleswomen with a knowledge of psychology know how to suggest enough and not too much, how to gauge the customer's wants while leaving her perfectly free to make her own choice. Very much difference is made by the first approach. The customer, for instance, who asks for the "suit" department is distinctlyput off by a young woman who responds, "Oh, you mean the costumes!"' She is still more put off by the suggestion that "That is never worn now.." .While the saleswoman does not exactly need to flatter the 'customer, it is a

useful assumption that the latter knows to some extent what she wants. Choice in buying is so diflicult that any intrusion of the personal element, any appearance of talking too much, any suggestion of insistence, is apt to put off tho buyer and make her only anxious to get out of the shop. The beat sales-

woman talks very little, but never gives an impression that it is hopeless to find the tiling the customer wants. If it is really not there, she makes suggestions as tentative as possible, but does not thrust them at the buyer.