MEN IN UNIFORM

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 59, 9 March 1940, Page 19

MEN IN UNIFORM

THE ADMIRATION OF WOMEN

Who can analyse the mystical glamour of the uniform and explain its remarkable attraction for our sex? asks a writer in the "Sydney Morning Herald."

From the days when knights went forth in suits of clanking mail to joust with the enemy, and carried with j them to battle a yearning maiden's -talisman, men in uniform have captured the imagination and the admiration of J 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 flirt 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 I that the man in the street, when decked 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 youjig man. no matter how previously negative in personal appeal, when he dons his Majesty's uniform is a certain social success. Blondes who hitherto scorne his presence and despised his pimples immediately forget the spots and observe the stripes (if he has any) on the sleeves of his army coat MUFTI IS UNROMANTIC. Candidly speaking, the ordinary male in mufti is an unfomantic 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 with 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. He is no longer "just plain Bill," 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. Cunningly curved leggigs flatter a deficient calf; the upturned hat, with its fascinating chin strap, gives uplift to a soldier's morale as well as to his chin (or chins), and lends gallantry to the most homely face.

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 "build-up." Our clothes have always signified our best selves. We spend our whole lives thinking out new ways of letting our clothes speak for us. But with men, war, and the necessity of dressing for it, is their one chance of looking their absolute best.