Topless Fad Spreading

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30480, 30 June 1964, Page 2

Topless Fad Spreading

(N.Z. Press Assn. —Copyright) LONDON, June 28. The fad for topless bathing suits for women spread this week-end throughout Europe, in defiance of police orders to cover up.

Too-daring women faced prosecution and fines in Greece, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Austria, but the fad increased rather than tapered off. The practice was especially prevalent on the French Riviera where girls have removed the tops of their bikinis for years without being considered obscene. Dress and swimsuit manufacturers reported they were turning out new topless numbers to meet the increasing demand. “Like it or not, the idea seems to be catching on,” said Nora Downey, a fashion writer for the British Sunday newspaper, the “News of the World”.

“Customers are asking for revealing styles, and manufacturers are doing their best to meet the demand. Already, two firms have topless, halterstrap bikinis and frontscooped, one-piece sunsuits in the shops, and two leading wholesalers are turning out topless dresses as fast as they can be cut.

The “Tailor and Cutter” said that the surest way to encourage a new style is to try to kill it or legislate against it. One designer, Mary Quant, of London, said: “The craze could kill itself, if the clothes are vulgar. Naked, suhbronzed bosoms are acceptable. But only women with good figures should expose them. Otherwise the fashion will be made cheap and nasty.” The fad was attacked last evening by Dr. Ernest Clax-

ton, assistant secretary of the British Medical Association.

He said if girls are thoughtful they will not wear clothes that are likely to provoke young men. The fad brought an outburst of letters to various newspaper editors, United Press International said. A man wrote that women would wear cardboard boxes if someone said they were fashionable. An “angry housewife” wrote, “I wouldn’t show my figure to anyone—not even my husband.”