BRITISH FABRICS SUFFER SET-BACK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 127, 1 June 1938, Page 16

BRITISH FABRICS SUFFER SET-BACK.

Importation of American Frocks Affects Trade.

(By NELLE M. SCANLAN)

LONDON, April 23.

Most British industries are flourishing at the moment, and I was surprised to hear from one of the highest authorities that British fabrics were not sharing in this increased prosperity.

A display of dresses made from British fabrics, and destined for the

Glasgow exhibition was snown at the Dorchester this week. In order to invoke our goodwill we were first invited to a wide range of cocktails and savouries, and having thus paved the way we were shown what a number of the most notable dress houses in London had produced from British materials.

It was before the showing that the president of the organisation which has fought so hard for many years to bring the standard of British fabrics up to that of foreign products told us quite frankly that unless something was done British manufacturers would be ruined. He complained bitterly about the latest menace to our trade, the importation of moderately-priced dresses from America, which have sprung rapidly to favour, and are having a disastrous effect upon our own trade.

There has never been any doubt ahout the quality of British fabrics, and I am a stout advocate of the buy British policy. But I must admit that I am often appalled by the ugliness of the designs manufactured. Surely if you have to dye material a colour, it can be an attractive shade; and if you have to weave a pattern, it may as well be a pattern that is coming into vogue, and not one that has been dead several years. Even this year, at the British Industrial Fair, though there were some lovely fabrics and charming designs, the majority were crude in colour, unattractive in design, and not calculated to meet this growing competition, not only from Europe, but America. I am sorry to have to admit it, but the display I saw that was going to the Glasgow exhibition did nothing to change my opinion. To make a debutante's court dress and train out of 1/11 muslin may be an achievement, but the dyess itself, for its special purpose, had little to commend it. There was no" single garment shown that I,ached to own. Viennese Styles Preferred. For years, when we wanted something really smart in knit-wear, we turned to Vienna. --The Britisli manufacturers liave first say in the wool market, for most of the best comes from the Empire countries. And they make a lot of knit-wear garments, sound, serviceable, of lasting quality. But they never approached in design the Viennese models. These had ideas, imagination, the cut excellent, the workmanship beyond praise, and above all each garment was graced by those little touches which give character and individuality. ' Now America has come into the held with low-priced, ready-to-wear dresses. Taken price for price, the cut and finish are often so much better, and garments have individual touches which show creative imagination. I had a friend over here last year for the Coronation, a well-dressed and elegant woman, and-after looking over our shops she told me that the only thing she would buy in England was a country tweed suit. No one can touch us for that. But when it came to smart cvery-day frocks, she claimed we were far behind the United States. And from what I have seen I quite agree with her. The American woman to-day is probably the best-dressed woman in the world. She pays great, attention to grooming, to the care of her face and' hair and hands, and her shoe® and stockings, bags and belts are always excellent and an exact match. We Owe it to the Americans that we now have many different fittings for every size in shoes. I think their men's clothes are usually appalling; terribly expensive-looking, rather loud in pattern, and wrong in cut. No one can touch the well-dressed Englishman, and even countries not too friendly with us cannot dispute this fact. Foreign big-wigs always get their suits made to England.

Why can't we do the same thing with women's clothes? lam not saying that all British clothes are bad; we produce some of the loveliest, but it is no good pleading with women to "buy British" when.in equal competition (perhaps it is not equal when you consider tariffs) we have to appeal to patriotism for support of British fabrics.

Clothes are evolved to suit the climate, income and mode of living in various countries. Smart Paris always wears black. London's smartest town frocks are also black, or black and white. Except for garden parties, or race meetings, like Ascot, there is nothing to beat it. Birt black is wrong in the country. Smart London women never dress-up for the street; they reserve their display for indoor occasions or outside festivities. Meet them out shopping, and they are extremely tailored and neat. Dearth of "Little Dressmakers."' '?• What always puzzles me is that you can buy lovely materials, both muslins, silks and woollens by the yard, but that priceless treasure, the little dressmaker round the corner, which you find everywhere in Paris and most Continental towQs, simply does not exist in England. It makes this buying of material a terrible risk; it is so often ruined in the making. So we turn to the ready-to-wear dresses, but too often, when the cut is right, the colour or pattern of the material is bbd. I don't know where these mass production factories get their materials. It doesn't take any more time or money to make up a pretty material than an ugly one, and the chance of selling it is'far greater. And while they are crying out against foreign competition it seems to me that the first step to meet this menace is to start at the root cause, the manufacturers themselves. We will buy British if we get suitable goods. '

If you want hand-made or embroidered lingerie, you can't get British workmanship. British girls are not trained in needlecraft. Once in a- while you come across such a girl, and you find she lias served some years in one of the big West End houses, where such a high standard is demanded, and people

are prepared to pay high prices. But the average sewing woman can't touch sucli work. I don't think it is entirely a case of the lower wages paid in Europe, though that, no doubt, is one cause. The point remains, whenever you want fine needlework on lingerie, you turn to the Continent.

Some time ago I found that Canada., like the United States, was designing her own clothes, and these bore a close relation to the goods manufactured across her border. Here again, the choice of material was admirable, the cut and finish good, and the garments had individual touches, a new noie of colour, a new combination of colours, a special arrangement of buttons, a fresh design in belts —little things that showed again creative imagination.

I was distressed to hear that the British fabric manufacturers were in such a bad way, but I still hold to the opinion, and with considerable evidence to support it, that the fabric manufacturers themselves are partly to blame, and add to that, the bad choice of material used by mass-production factories, which supply our British ready-to-wear clothes.