CASUAL COMMENTS

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19646, 15 June 1929, Page 13

CASUAL COMMENTS

j LEGS AND LEGGINGS. ! ; «?ec-5.«.:.t -*-?.rrr»* rr>s the p*r«s ' j [Ft Lbo Fattwisg.l i I "Trt ?»-:»" *•« th« i«nc that >e »unj. | 'At r:li! ia i:a- aorim' I'm g■■■:::/ :< \>e Fo jon iri th« ' hnr-.it «nd tine >t »i!h ">*. "For trrakfin the w-'th the comi:»l ' 'At promised rae 'j3 *:-i » crar-I* ot ««»• - Oh, it *ft': ir.i'ter coca if 1 nu* i tnr.guc. . | For .v f-.-rr : u >h« mcmia I m test r? I h * '"re "' .. ~ j -yvm Le«;ie Fr.cmsc> ' F»b • cf * C<-... Lots of us have romiral ]<»cs. but if wo are- not women ! nor male golfers wo st* no: | much worried about them, as the tu!*s of tweed (especially if they a.-o at all Oxford-bagiiisiii may kindly cover » mukitm:-- 1 <.f shortcomings or Kinks. ->:- * * It is only since the end of the Victorian era that women have been allowed to hr.Te lens. In Victorian times worn :n may have talkc-i about their legs among themselves, but in ino mixed circles of '-polite society'' a blurt of the word leg in reference to a woman would have mado old dowagj era put up their lorgnettes and stare with cold disdain at the person whoso tongue hud slipped so vmpardonably. But to-day. as a topic of talk, legs are as commonplace as eggs or radio.

The older a man grows, the more he marvels at woman's abilitv to -'deliver the goods' 1 at fashion's call. Some time ago I commented ou the rise and fab of the waist—the wilful waist which makes woeful want lor the arm that has missed the change of style—but more astonishing feats have been achieved with less. Anybody could count on the fingers of one hand the number of pairs of mis-shapen feminine legs that flash their mock-silkeu sheen in the streets during a fortnight or so. Yet before the skirt-lino began to recede, the proportion of unlikable lefts mus; have been much greater. Where ther<-> is a woman there is a way to make old Nature mend her manners.

Probably the shyest of curates have long since ceased to be shocked at the public parades of gleaming, knee-high hose, and yet a recent cable message from London has indicated that legs are still subject to some conventions. Some of the ladies, who know that they do not shock anybody—except hard-shelled survivals from the Victorian age—when thev show luiee-to-foot bareness from a bathing costume, desire similar freedom on the tennis courts, but the British authorities are not encouraging the innovation, although thev are not formally forbidding it. That is a shrewd attitude. It is taking man a long time to learn how to manage the feminine temperament, but lie is truly learning, dear friends; he is indeed learning. The official tennis mind amounts to this: Stockings, ladies, ves. but not shocking*. But it is hard to believe that the committee would be shocked by the slight difference between bareness and a close-fitting flesh-tinted fabric. In the view of most men it would l>o merely a ra.se of six of one against half-a-dozen of the other.

'The bare-legged practice of some ultra-fashionable Parisian dames has not yet come to New Zealand. When some of the darine young Frenchwomen had pictures painted on their knees they may have fancied they were doing something new, but of course they were not. The ornamental treatment of bare legs ha<? long been the custom of the coquettish brown ladies of those care-free South Rea Isles known as the Marquesas. In his book, "In the South Sea«." R. L. Stevenson makes mention of the stately old Queen Vaekehu. After a note on "the exouisite finish of her tattooed mittens," R.L K. remarks:—

"This was a queen of cannibals. She was tattooed from head to foot, and perhaps the protest masterpiece of that art now extant, so that a while ago, before she was erown prim, her lez was one of the s : chts of Tai-o-bac." * * * In recent years Frederick O'Brien has written about the Marquesan belles' pride in their wonderfully tattooed limbs. # * * To help stockings to be useful as well as ornamental on cold days some women have dainty-looking leggings known as "spattees," but some prefer cold curves to the comparative ruggedness of "spattees/' A few have ventured into the Russian boot (which has an upper long enough to be termed a legging), but not many New Zealand girls are brave enough to step out in this novelty. Perhaps they have seen this verse somewhere: "A girl, Russian-booted, ol Beckenham, Didn't know she was riekirg her neck in >m. I have sorrow in statics She stack in the grating. And now ahe'i bo longer on trek in 'en."

Well, that is enough for to-day about women's legs and leggings There is just enough space left to give the men a little undesired and undeserved publicity. Somebody has predicted that the kree-breeches of other days will have another general run some day, and no doubt they will, but some of us hope they won't, for man lacks woman's ability to make the best of a more or less bad turn of Nature. Some say that the playing raiment of golfers will spread through society, but I pray fervently that society will be spared such an' affliction for its sins. As a 'non-golfer I suspect that the primness of the golfer's plus-fours has a purpose, but it would have to be a very noblo purpose to excuse it« hideousness. At a little distance, in the dusk, a plus-four person looks like a caricature of a queer bird—a sort of jazz penguin, perbiy>s.

It is better to think of real leggings. What a variety of leggings the world has seen for men during the past two thousand years! I feel pleaded that my marble was not drawn from the lottery of life in days of old when knights were bold in iron suit*, which were not very comfortable, although they were usually made-to-measure. 'Those iron leggings mntt have caused some hard swearing and cursing. # # * Why did the puttee replace other legging» for soldirrs of the King? In that heavv swathing of woollen bandage a man's kg mu-t feel stewed on ;i hot march, and when that_ heavy wrapper is thoroughly wet it doe* take some drving. Under war conditions the puttee can be ai«o a pararii=e for vermin. Then ther* is the time wasted in turning the yards and vards of stuff into a legging. Here i- . r. job for the Statistician a Offi-e to j estimate the various losses of effi- ] ciency <-au?ed by the p'lttee. i

Mrdr-rn man i-. really shy aU"it wearing Pegging* to safeguard in* trouser ends in wet weather. A good few vears ago the leather-bucket type —similar to the present legging of nulitarv officers —was prevalent, but it wa« too short to pave the knees from a soaking. Here is an opportunity for a few brave men to set a fashion in leggings reaching as high as a daaghtaraaaa'a or a motor-ejwbrt'a.