Schoolgirl Figures Need Support

Press, Volume C, Issue 29508, 9 May 1961, Page 2

Schoolgirl Figures Need Support

“All too often schoolgirls need the support of foundation garments long before their mothers realise it,” said the educational director of

Warners U.S.A., Miss Barbara Greenwood, in Christchurch yesterday. “Young people usually need as careful fitting with these garments as do older women. But for

young girls they must be as light as possible.”

When told New Zealand schoolgirls usually wear long stockings with a suspender belt in the winter, Miss Greenwood said a light elastic girdle would be far better for their figures and would certainly do them no harm. “These days foundation garments are comfortable to wear," she said. “They are fashioned to suit any girl or woman, no matter how active she is. Women forget that tight corsets, laced and boned till the wearer is actually suffering, have gone from the scene.”

In the United States. Miss Greenwood said, foundation garments for young girls were a major concern of the industry. There were now about seven million girls at

an age when they should be wearing them, and the number was expected to grow to 13 million in a very short time. Young girls and women alike were favouring the new pastel shades in foundation garments and were matching them to the varying shades in lingerie. The most popular colour was beige. This colour went well with creamy tonings for light frocks and was a colour that suited nearly everyone. When in Christchurch recently, Lady Dukes, a Yoga expert was reported as saying that women with good figures did not need to wear corsets To this. Miss Green-

wood replied that there were very few women indeed who did not need them. "They would have to have perfec 4 figures." she said. “Even then they would benefit from the support a girdle would give them. Wardrobe

“These days women need a whole wardrobe of foundation garments because there really is not one that will serve under all types of frock. A woman should have at least two short, strapped bras, one strapless brassiere, an panti-girdle, two ordinary girdles and for evening, a strapless or strapped corselette. For a working woman this would mean she would have the right silhouette for all her dresses.” The secret of keeping a girdle firm and new for a greater length of time was frequent laundering, said Miss Greenwood. Washed very often in not-too-hot water, the garments would not weaken as they did if perspiration was allowed to work into the weave of the elastic.