INTERESTING VISITOR

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 94, 15 January 1936, Page 4

INTERESTING VISITOR

Criticism of New Zealand Women LACK OF SMARTNESS An interesting visitor to Auckland recently was Mrs. Albert Wetjen, who, with her husband, a well-known writer of sea stories and novels, is returning to her home in San Francisco after a visit to New Zealand and Australia, states the “New Zealand Herald.” An excellent typist, Mrs. Wetjen acts, when be is working, as her husband s secretary. In both New Zealand and Australia, she said, they found a great deal to interest them not only from the point of view of pleasure but also from the novelists’ viewpoint. rs - Wetjen thought that the highlights of her trip were the most notable features of tlie caves at Waitomo, with which she had never seen anything to compare, and tlie koala bears of Australia. “I think I saw every koala bear there was,” she added. Mrs. Wetjen said that she was rather disappointed with women’s dressing in New Zealand. She was puzzled to know where tlie fault actually lay, but thought that, generally speaking, the women of New Zealand did not wear their clothes with the smartness of women overseas.

“Of course there are a great many exceptions,” said Mrs. Wetjen. Ibeie always are a few women who know how to dress and wear their clothes, and you couid drop them into London or Paris or New York, and they would still look well-dressed.” Generally speaking, they lucked an air of careful grooming and did not cl oose their accessories with discrimination. or study their own individual requirements sufficiently. Even the most well-cut frock had to be worn very carefully to look its best. Women’s clothes in New Zealand weie considerably more expensive thau overseas and Mrs. Wetjen thought that possibly women here relied upon their own ability to sew or else trusted too much to a small dressmaker. Simplicity, she said, was the main characteristic of modern fashion, but it must lie a simplicity of distinction and smartness. She thought Hie fact that New Zealand was so far away from Europe might account for the general lack of smartness in women’s froeking. Women dressed better in Australia.