AUSTRALIAN BUYER

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28936, 2 July 1959, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN BUYER

Underwear Ideas Sought Miss Nan Redsell has a job which sounds like the dream of many women; she travels the world looking for new ideas, new styles, and new fabrics for women’s underwear. But it added up to a lot of hard work and some very rushed timetables. Miss Redsell said as she hurried through her lunch shortly before she Was due at the airport. She and a colleague, Mr P. H. Jordan, spent a hectic two days in Christchurch looking at merchandise, they said. They are representatives of a large shop in Sydney which buys all over the world, including New Zealand.

“For instance I have seen here some pantie-girdles which we do n t make in Australia,” she said. The reason was that Australia imported less of certain types of American materials because it reserved the greater part of its dollar allocation for industrial requirements.

Both countries were also trying to encourage across-the-Tasman trade, the buyers said. 14 Countries Miss Redsell recently visited 14 countries in eight weeks. These included England, European countries, the United States, Japan, and Communist China, which was an eye opener to her, Miss Redsell said. "What an experience to seen China working hard and progressing fast.”

She had been only in Hong Kong before, she said. “This time I visited Canton to attend a world’s fair.” . Her particular interest there was in silk materials. "Modern women in all the Western countries want lingerie they can launder easily, which will not crease, will dry fast and which needs no ironing,” she said. New fabrics mixing synthetics with cotton were meeting this wish.

A point Mr Jordan emphasised was the quick delivery of New Zealand goods compared with goods from Europe and the lower duty on many items. His interest was in women’s sportswear and he was on his first visit to New Zealand, he said. He was agreeably surprised at the standard of production of clothing he had seen in New Zealand. “There is a definite market in Australia for your goods—there is no doubt about that. It is there for those who want to go after it,” he said. New Zealand manufacturers were inclined to be too apologetic about their goods, he said. He had seen and ordered suede jackets, women’s “separates,” sports coats and ski jackets which seemed to be equal in quality and workmanship to those made in Australia.

St. Martins Townswomen.— Mrs Shellock presided at the sixth birthday party of the St. Martins Townswomen's Guild and welcomed a large number oi members and guests. Among Specially-invited guests were Mesdames C. Plumridge, Dominion president. R. Smith, Dominion secretary, C. Ironside and L. C. Collett, Dominion executive. J. Fowler, area president, and area officers. Entertainment was provided by the guild drama and singing circles.