Woman Designs Men’s Wear

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32118, 14 October 1969, Page 3

Woman Designs Men’s Wear

(By DELLA DENMAN, N.Z.P.A. Correspondent)

LONDON, October 13.

Lilian Parker earns her living by gazing- out of the window, an occupation discouraged by many professions but positively welcomed by Cecil Gee, the London men’s-wear firm. She is chief designer for the manufacturer and gets most of her inspiration by screening the passers-by from her office in Shaftesbury Avenue.

“Seventy per cent of our merchandise is bought by the ordinary man in the street,” she explains. “What better way is there to figure out what the public likes to wear?” . The only full-time woman designer of men’s clothes in Britain, she trained at Nottingham Art College and the Royal College of Art. Having designed fashions for both sexes she settled on men's wear as being “more positive, more punchy.” “I am interested in the construction and technical detailing of fashion, but most women don’t like wearing in-tricately-seamed or tailored clothes. “Women’s wear collections, unless the house has an already established line, are often just a conglomeration of random ideas thrown together. But designing men’s wear give one the opportunity to create a specific look, to produce a collection with a definite message.” The Cecil Gee consultancy works for eight different manufacturers selling both in Britain and overseas. She discusses the general outline of designs with two other consultants but does all the drawing-board work herself. She produces two basic collections a year, but men’s wear is no longer confined to

summer and winter seasons and work virtually never stops. “Apart from the fact that designs must suit ’ a very broad' age group, I'm' left largely to my own devices,” she says. “What we try to achieve is a modern, forwardthinking outline without gimmicks.” She dislikes the extremes. Kings Road fashions—- “ Great if worn in moderation, but people wear too much at

the same time.” Saville Row—“ Fine for those who can afford it but outdated with today’s methods of production and who knows it’s a hand-made suit anyway?” British Best But for the average consumer, she says, British tailoring cannot be beaten. The only improvement she would call for is in co-ordinates: “To the average wearer a suit is a suit If suitings were

co-ordinated with trouserings and knitwear men would get so much more wear out of them.”

How much* should a man be prepared to lay out on his wardrobe? “It depends largely on the cloth, but I would not pay more than $3O on a suit, $l5 for a jacket, $25 for a coat, and around $3 on a shirt”

The biggest worry in men’s wear, she says, is in propor-tion-each suit has to be made up in three lengths and three widths.

’ “But you soon develop an eye for designs that are easily adaptable.” Sometimes she feels she is encroaching on what has previously been an exclusively man’s field—she has not met a woman in the trade yet. “And obviously when you’re designing for the opposite sex you can’t just slip on a jacket and say ‘yes, this is a good fit’,” she admits.

“But if it looks right on paper it usually looks right in cloth, and it works the other way—the gravest .danger for a woman designing women’s wear is that she will turn out clothes than only suit herself.” Dapper French Lilian Parker admires the illimitable dapper look of French men’s wear, she considers Italy brilliant on colour and most of the Continental countries clever at finishing, but on all-round fashion consciousness Britain comes top. And what does her ideally dressed man wear? “He should be above all neat and tidy, wearing carefully considered colours—not too way out, not contrived, and not mutton dressed up as lamb.” His office wear: a slim, slightly - waisited, singlebreasted suit with a tall jacket vent and trousers straight from the knee (“only tall men can carry off flared trousers”). His casual wear: a well-co-ordinated sports jacket and slacks or a sleeveless, pocketed, suede jerkin belted over trousers and sweaters. Outer wear: a simple, slightly-waisted coat with a long back vent, a large softish collar, hem length just below the knee for tall men and just above for short men. For evenings: a soft tapestry jacket or rich velvet jacket over plain trousers. Cravats or scarves in preference to ties (not polo-necks) .d, best of all, a shirt with a Ut-in cravat folded over id clipped down with a igle pearl.