FROM MAYA TO MAYFAIR

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 52, 29 August 1925, Page 6

FROM MAYA TO MAYFAIR

Having recently returned from exploration in the wilds, Mr. Mit-chell-Hedges has, according to a cable message published to-day, examined anew the outwai;d signs of the latest civilisation and found them indicative of male softness. This hardy entomologist has placed the social butterflies under inspection and pronounced them uninteresting specimens. Seemingly, also, ho does not regard them us beautiful. He is hard in bis judgment,- but for this there is some sscuse. How can a man \vlio fc§B fessft ms&*s &

fishing and the revelation of the ancient Maya civilisation be expected to appreciate the true appeal of "Oxford bags"? He sees the women with shingled hair and the men wearing garments which are more ample than many skirts, and he pronounoes the harsh judgment of " a saturation of feminity." He may be right, but the summary of his article in the " Daily* Sketch " suggests at least that he has given Bond Street and Mayfair too big a place in his pioture. Every age has had its male fashion-plates; and by comparison with other periods the Oxford bags of to-day are hesitating and half-hearted attempts to set a new style in male beauty. Lace ruffles and flowing perukes are not advised even for the leaders of fashion. And even the weak efforts for beauty of line and form are made only by the few who have no other olaim to distinction. When we see Mr. Baldwin walking in Downing Street in Oxford bags and without his pipe, or the Olydesider more concerned with the cut of his coat than the cut in his wages, we may believe that .there is cause for alarm. Even then it will be Boarcely fair to blame the women. If they do not realise that men are " leaders by the eternal laws of Nature," it is surely the fault of the men. Women admire beauty, for themselves, but strength in their male comrades. Their own ideas of wh^.t male fashions should be are surely shown in their recent tendency to 'copy accepted male styles—at least in hair-dressing.