MYSTICAL GLAMOUR

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 118, 12 February 1940, Page 4

MYSTICAL GLAMOUR

The Uniform Makes A Difference Who can analyze the mystical glamour of the uniform and explain its remarkable attraction for our sex? says a writer in the “Sydney Morning Herald.” From the days when knights went forth is suits of clanking mail to joust with the enemy, and carried with them to battle a yearning maiden’s talisman, men in uniform have captured the imagination, and the admiration of women. Maybe there’s a link-up somewhere. Human life takes on a special value when threatened with danger, and it is possible that because men have always garbed themselves in special vestments to dirt with fate, women associate the military uniform with fear of the possible loss of its wearer. Whatever the reason, and maybe the psychologists know, it is a fact, that the man in the street, when docked in the uniform of his unit, immediately and chameleon-like takes on a new and interesting personality. It is the kind of showmanship to which every woman is a victim. The plain young man, no matter how previously negative in personal _ appeal, when he dons his Majesty’s uniform, is a certain social success.

Candidly speaking, the ordinary male in mufti is an unromantic sight. His stuffy civic, commonplace clothes were not carefully and deliberately designed by an expert. They “jes’ growed,” or evolved out of even more hideous male fashion.

When he is equipped witii a uniform, however, which has been designed with skill and imagination, and an eye to its glorious significance, he cannot help but become an unwitting beneficiary. Ho is no longer “just plain 15111,” but a concrete representative of an abstract glory. It is the picked man who goes into the army, but even the most classic bodies have their weak points, and military uniform hides a multitude of small failings. Yes, uniform makes a difference. Men always profit by the wearing of it. and women will always respond to its magical influence. I wonder if women in uniform possess the same deadly attraction for the male? I don’t think so. Maybe it is because we need no “buildup.” Our clothes have always signified our best solves. We spend our whole lives thinking out new ways of letting our clothes speak for us. But with men. war, and the necessity for dressing for it. is their one '4lOllOO of looking their absolute best.

Mr. and Mrs. Norman Blalchford, Training Farm. Masterton. who have been on a holiday in Sentoun, Wellington. have returned home.