Elegance is back!

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34127, 13 April 1976, Page 18

Elegance is back!

Athletic attractive styles have elbowed the exaggerated casual styles in men’s suits out of the market for this winter. The new styles, now mostly in metric sizes, have moved to smart, clean-cut designs which give the male silhouette an elegant appearance. Like long hair, the very wide lapels, cuffs and “hipster” styles of the past few seasons are moving “out” here, in step with the rest of the western world. Trousers are now being worn at the waist rather than at the hips, and the suits are designed to give a tall, lean and athletic look — the latter to be accentuated by shoes with one-one-half-inch heels. The man with perhaps the greatest influence on what New Zealand men are wearing is the Queen’s dress designer Hardy Amies. In Auckland recently, Mr Amies said

the new season’s styles fitted well with trends in cloths which had moved toward plains and subdued checks and stripes — all in fairly muted tonings. His designs, now reaching the stores for winter, feature jackets with four-one-half-inch reveres and one or two buttons at the waist. Trousers are worn from the waist, fitting neatly at the hips and falling away to neat cuffless bottoms of around 22 inches. Some suits feature what has been described as a “blazer look”, with patch pockets, edge stitching, and some styles replacing the back vent with a raised centre back seam. “The suit is a totally ’un-stuffy’ garment now, and young people, from 18 up find the athletic look very attractive,” Mr Amies said. According to the sales

director of Cambridge Clothing (Mr Vin Hale) stores have stocked heavily Tor the coming season. ‘“There’s an excellent range in the stores now and a definite feeling within the industry that the public will be well pleased with the appearance they get with the new suit styles,” he said recently. Wool is the all-powerful fabric for the coming winter with the main styles coming in pure wool and terylene mixtures and crimplene. That hairstyles are changing to shorter styles to go with the new “tall look” in suits, is evidenced by an upsurge in business at men’s hairdressers. A recent survey of barber shops and hairdressers around Auckland revealed that men are going back to shorter, neater hairstyles, as predicted by Mr Amies some months ago.