Woman sounds envious note

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32707, 9 September 1971, Page 7

Woman sounds envious note

(By ROSALEEN MACBRAYNE) Fashion is thumbing its nose at female equality." Have you noticed how it’s all for the males at the moment? While women are being urged to wear long skirts in dowdy colours, reminiscent of granny’s day, their menfolk are emerging in full glory.

Sober, clerical suits, white shirts, club ties, and black; lace-up shoes are of another i era. Coloured shirts, new-1 line suits (in any shade you i fancy from tomato to sky ■ blue), superb co-ordinates, I wide ties, and new shoe 1 styles are well established, j And even older men are wearing sidebums and longer ] hair styles.' , The masculine image in i New Zealand,' I am glad to . say, no longer relies on the i three-button suit, though it i was not long ago that a man i who dared to challenge its i supremacy was considered < more than a little suspect. No longer afraid of criti- i cism, the male is now sub- , mitting his body to perfumes , and his hair to stylists. He . is wrapping himself in form- j fitting suits and flamboyant, scarves. Gone is al! that pad- , ding and the trouser Cuffs ( slopping round shoes. In short, we are back to the age of the dandies. The ; peacock revolution of the ; last few years is firmly in- ; stalled. The question is: is it over- , due—or merely overdone? : Today’s society has been J accused of desexualisation. , Men’s clothes have become , an approximation of women’s and women’s clothes copy . men’s. ' In the animal kingdom, of course, it is the male that is resplendent in order to, attract his mate. Fashions change as the pendulum swings. Perhaps money and leisure are the reasons for the drastic revi-1 talisation of men’s fashions in recent years. Youth is energetic and influential these days, and hooked on colour. Men have become as , concerned about thejr looks as women.

Traditional clothing manufacturers have had significant changes forced on them by the male consumer. They must now offer a much wider variety of styles in their basic suits and they have been forced to show more imagination. But the “new look” does have its practical benefits. A coloured shirt can give a lift to even “second best” suits. And a bit of mixing and matching of coloured shirts and suits, with a wide, bold, striped or floral tie thrown in, means a man can look different every day of the week. I can’t help wondering if many women hanker for the days when their menfolk, in dull but reliable attire, served as a splendid backdrop for pretty, femine clothes, especially at parties? Today, the men compete for attention. Nowadays, you are just as likely to see a girl in a little black dress of a sombre midi and her escort in something like crushed strawberry velvet pants, pink see-through shirt and, maybe, a chiffon scarf knotted carefully at the neck. He will invariably be the one who is concerned that every hair is in place. So much for the old adage that a well-dressed man should not be observed. The decline of the military image and the emphasis on rebellious youth have been put forward as psychological explanations for the Peacock Male. But, basically, our blokes haven’t changed much. In spite of the trimmings, they still believe in male dominance. And they are still convinced they know best about Rugby, politics, beer and the insides of motor cars. (Fashion, too?)