DRESS OPTIONAL

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28896, 16 May 1959, Page 12

DRESS OPTIONAL

[By

WHIM WHAM]

th _ *?™i,< Zeala b d S rs for years have been the worst dressed men In tne world—a shade worse than the Australians, according to Mr Louis News’ttem assoclate of the American Institute ot Clothing Design.— Of course, Sir, if we dressed any more smartly, People might think the national Poverty cried by Walter was dll a Tale, or at least partly: Though I must say Walter himself dresses not altogether un-nattily Compared with Some of his Colleagues who appear in Public rather more tattily— Skog., for instance, being my personal Bete Noir, Always looks to me, in Cut and Finish, a Stitch or two below Poir; Though a whole Congress of High-class Tailors approved the The Ministerial Form inside wouldn’t impress me one Whit Jr traction of a Whit more, since I am more than a Whit, or Bit Prejudiced, I admit. . . . True, the well-furnished Mind and the well-dressed Bodv Seldom occur together, indeed One gets used to the shoddy Outward Appearance of the genuinely gifted Type And to the fashionably tailored Clot in the latest Shade. Fleck or ' Pin Stripe. I myself incline to a highly personal and careless Style Or Dress, being merely what lies uppermost on the Pile At the Bottom of the Wardrobe or hangs nearest to Hand. My Rig of the Day is never calculated or planned But depends chiefly on inscrutable Chance Or Impulse, or domestic Circumstance— On What’s at the Cleaners, or whether I’ve got Time to shift From one Pocket to another the chaotic Masses of Papers, etc., CAQnl'uv which the whole Day is liable to go adrift. CASUALLY is how I dress, regardless of the Contempt Of shop-snobs and fashion-slaves who think me sloppy and unkempt. Sir, I take it that this Kind of sartorial Messiness Counts me out of any international Contest in the Matter of Dressiness Or if it doesn’t, surely it must be found That I don’t get even as far as the qualifying Round? The worst-dressed, like the Weakest, may go socially to the Wall. But Some of us get bv (in OUR FASHTON)