NORMAN HARTNELL SAYS: Mothers Have A Place In Fashion

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31770, 29 August 1968, Page 2

NORMAN HARTNELL SAYS: Mothers Have A Place In Fashion

I hate to see women not making the most of themselves, especially when they are young and attractive.

Certainly, nobody needs to be neglected on today’s fashion scene. Yet there is a veritable army of young and t attractive women who complain that they do not have a thing to wear, and neither time nor money to remedy the situation.

They are the young “mums,” the women in the late twentiesearly thirties bracket, so busy with running a home and bringing up a family, that the world of fashion passes them by.

At least that is what they sav. And although they might think it is true, there’s no reason why it should be so. Certainly, they will not have much time for reclining on an elegant sofa with a pile of the lastest glossy magazines. But that does not mean that they should not know what is happening in fashion. I love to design clothes for young mums, and many other couturiers do, too. It is only recently that manufacturers have realised that there is a rich market in the over twen-ty-fives and now there is little reason why a mum should not be as fashionably dressed as anyone else. Many housewives are inclined to say, when they have their babies in their twenties: “That's at least 10 years of my life gone.” They expect to be so tied down by lack of home help, lack of baby-sitters, and shortage of money, that they will not be able to emerge on “the scene" again until the children are almost teenagers. I know many 30-year-old mums who look as neat as pins, and keep well up with fashion, if only by changing accessories or altering buttons, sewing on new collars, and taking up (or letting down) their hemlines. These mum? are just as overworked as any others, but the difference is that they want to stay on the scene, and where there is a will, there is invariably a way! They read ’ one good fashion magazine a month. It costs the same as a paperback thriller. Window-shopping costs no

more than a bus ride to the nearest big departmental store. This is as good a way as any of keeping in touch. Another good way of keeping in touch Is to join a sewing group. You get nowhere staying at home and moaning. The milkman cannot chat about fashion. Remember, if you are a woman, the world of clothes and fashion belongs to you. As my friend Paddy Davies, managing director of a leadnig perfume and cosmetic company, says: “There is a sense of excitement in fashion and make-up in the World today, and bo age group, especially the housewives, should feel excluded or neglected. It’s all happening, if they open their eyes. Join in. I tell them, join in!” And why not? Visually, a housewife can join in by watching fashion worn on television, and studying the dresses worn by the celebrities.

And there are some wellinformed fashion articles in newspapers. The theatre and cinema are also mines of information. I know of a couple of housewives with children of school age, who took free Courses in making clothes at a local technical college, leaving their husbands to baby-sit Now they have opened a small boutique. It just shows what you can do if you’re really determined. Obviously, when there is a young family, money is short. But you should have a little for yourself, and if this is carefully saved for a month or two, there should be enough to buy something you really need. Before you say: “Yes, but I need everything,” the chances are that what you really need is something for the day-time —for the odd coffee morning and trips into town, and something for the evening when you can manage a baby-sitter and your husband takes you somewhere a bit special.

With these two outfits, you can look well-dressed at almost anything.

For the evening, why not choose something like a long, sleeveless dress in black linen with its own cardigan jacket in white linen? For a smart day outfit, a navy cotton pique coat with white cotton pique dress to match will ensure that you are smartly dressed, both Indoors and outdoors.

Surely, you can fiddle the housekeeping often enough to provide the necessary for outfits like these? And if your husband finds out, the chances are you will look so smart he will forgive you on the spot.