DRESS DESIGNING

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 56, 7 March 1934, Page 12

DRESS DESIGNING

MEN DO IT WELL. Why do men make our gowns for us? Why do men cook us the most tasty of dishes? Surely not because women lack the ability; nor the imagination. But it remains a fact that if we want something full of chic, of line, of rhythm, and if we want piquancy for the palate, we must turn to men.

Of course, wa have our Schiaparelii, our Lanvin, our Ceeile, and our Mrs. Uecton, and yearly more women enter the lield of their own preserves and conquer. Hut for years men have led the way. And they do the job so well, too. They go about it in a business like way and force women, by sheer inspiration, to become what they would make of them. If men had to wear some of the

"creations" it is to be wondered whether they would call it a day and order tweeds and felt hats for the whole of the feminine world. A long train may look lovely to the eye; it may How; it may be a "cascade," "but the poor woman who wears it,' is inclined, at the end of a tiring evening, t<; call it many another name.

Are men more observant that they can create for themselves a name for fashion designing, or is it that their traditional experience or artistic creation stands by them, whereas women, who have only until comparatively recently emerged from the confines of the home, have not yet got their background firmly enough established. It remains to be seen. It is safe to suppose that as the years flow 011 more and more women will compete in their own field.

But meanwhile, in settling that eternal argument that women arc poaching 011 men's preserves and becoming doctors, lawyers, engineers and business employers, there comes tlio ready answer that men in their turn are handling silks and satin, blending our flavours in the kitchen, and generally doing our jobs equally as well as we arc doing theirs.