PUNCTILIOS OF DRESS

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 32, 6 August 1927, Page 20

PUNCTILIOS OF DRESS

LABOUR LEADERS IN PARLIAMENT.

Among the ordeals of life in modern London is the knowledge that at any function the editor of the "Tailor and Cutter," a sartorial critic of the most Unbending standards and severity, may be on hand to detect any lapses'from fashion's dictates. He was invited to the wedding of the daughter of Mr. J. H. Thomas, M.P., the Labour leader, and almost glowed in his account of its correctness. There was a pleasant surprise in store. "Labour has grown up, assumed responsibility, and gone to a good tailor. In the House of Commons the Labour Party is no better and no worse than the others in a disregard for the punctilios of dress for the occasion. But it has made tremendous strides. At the wedding there were leading Conservatives and Liberals present, with lords and men of great possessions, but Labour held_ its own in the cut of its morning coat and tho tilt and gloss of its silk hat. Mr. Thomas was well dressed, and wore a vest, slip, spats, and a button-hole to brighten up his formal.suit. Mr. Henderson, although not the glass of fashion and the mould of form of Jimmy Thomas, because he lacks the figure aud the air, offered no room for criticism. Mr. Baldwin's clothes looked thoroughly tired. Lord Birkenhead fell lamentably short. He came to the reception in a lounge suit. Evil communications corrupt good dressing; he consorts too much with Winston Churchill. Lord Astor was elegant; his slim figure showing to advantage in a cutaway. But a wing collar would have looked better than the more free and easy double. Lord Dewars clothes were correct, but not sparkling; he seemed to be suffering from suppressed epigrams. The Attorney-General's suit was non-

committal. The Lord Mayor, less imposing than in robes and chain, looked well in formal day dress. The young are being brought up in the way they should go; and one may compliment the sons and daughters of Labour on their fashionable appearance." Apparently he forgot the bride.