Queen’s Wardrobe For New Zealand A Secret

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32215, 6 February 1970, Page 2

Queen’s Wardrobe For New Zealand A Secret

Hardy, Amies, designer to the Queen, enjoys press conferences —“I’d be awfully disappointed if you didn’t want to come”—and he is a ready and intelligent talker on everything but what the Queen will wear on her New Zealand tour.

“The Queen gives me an awful lot of latitude, and God knows I’ve said enough,” he said, “but she doesn't like me to discuss clothes she has not yet worn. After she has worn a garment, I’m free to talk about—l could even give you a sketch.” Although the forthcoming Royal wardrobe remains a closely guarded secret, it is fair to assume Mr Amies would have no desire to see the Queen in a mini-skirt. One suspects he is a romantic at heart, turning an urbane presence against the absurdities and sometimes downright vulgarity of much of modern fashion. Certainly, there was a heart-felt tone to his even, internationally - accented English when he spoke of the “overwhelming acceptance of the maxi" during the European winter in Christchurch yesterday. “This must have an influence on everything,” he said, which was about as close to laying down the law as he

came during more than an hour spent with the press. (He did say men could wear a tie and lace-up shoes with shorts if they wanted to, but they need not think it looked nice.) Midi—when the hem-line just caresses the top of the calf —is his favourite length. It appeared in one third of his recently-released summer collection. "I’ve always loved pleated and flared skirts from a small waist." Mr Amies is one of the many designers who believe the day of the Individualist has arrived. Like most Pari-

sians, his collection contained short skirts, along with midi and maxi lengths. He does not envisage a universally popular length in the 19705. Women will be able to choose the length they want to wear, a prospect with some unwelcome aspects for the fastidious Englishman. “We shall no doubt see some marvellous horrors,” he said, raising his eyebrows behind round, tortoiseshell tinted glasses. “With long skirts the hair should be piled up, or worn in a bun at the nape of the neck.” But will women want to (give up their youthful short

skirts? "Can you make a woman look younger, really? Of course, if she is 70 you can make her look 65, but what’s the difference?” Mr Amies agreed there was a difference between looking young and looking youthful, maintaining it was all in the way a woman moved. For him the most important thing about a woman’s clothing is the way it is made. “Though, of course, the first thing I notice is whether she is a nice girl. Then I look to see whether the clothes are well made.” The garments he designs are what he wants to see women wear, not necessarily the things he knows they like to wear. If he begins to create a design he knows will probably not be favoured, he keeps going “to get it out of my system.” A style which does not become popular is a disappointment, but there is always next season. Mr Arnie’s designs are favoured by the Queen, and he is the uncrowned king of men’s-wear design in Britain and the United States, yet he dismisses any claims to dictatorship. Still, there is about him the craftman’s air of easy authority, impossible to resent.

New Zealand appeals to him as an ideal country in which to spend the summer months, cultivating a garden full of herbs, fishing, and boating. In Auckland he spent several days yachting, and will visit relatives of close friends who own a sheep station, Blue Cliffs, near Timaru.