FASHION’S THRALL

Evening Star, Issue 21004, 19 January 1932, Page 1

FASHION’S THRALL

MEN THE REAL SLAVES A judge has recently proclaimed publicly that women are slaves of fashion (writes Edith Picton Turbervill, M.P., in the ‘ Daily Mail I throw down a challenge here and now, and say it' is obvious that men are far greater slaves to fashion than are women. Women can choose for their clothes almost any colour under the sun, and if; they dress in sombre clothes can wear the most delightful of flaming scarves to relieve the darkness of their dresses. _ Masculine fashion, on the other hand, is so hidebound and limited that men appear almost to be dressed in uniform. In both form and colour fashion permits them to have incredibly little choice, and iimn dare not flout fashion. If by chance a man finds he is wearing a garment that is not quite correct he is far more sensitive to public opinion than a woman is.

Fashion demands for masculine dress so little variety that one sighs for the olden days as far as men’s clothing is concerned, for knee breeches and silk stockings give some variety of form. In the ugly tubular trousers—most hideous of garments—form and line are all alike, except that some are long and others stumpy! Fashion decrees that man should dress in sombre colours, and they dare not resist. Even such details as collars and ties are 1 alike,- and show an appalling slavishness to fashion and custom.

' I have known a young man’s whole evening at a dance to be utterly spoilt because the points of his white waistcoat were not quite as long as they ought to have been. Tic, shoes, all other details were immaculate, but that year fashion had dictated long points to the white waistcoat, and his points, though to the ordinary observer long enough, were not as long as those worn by other young men at the dance. Nor is* this unusual, for meh as a rule are far from unhappy than are women if they discover they are not wearing exactly the right thing. Of course, there are exceptions. In the House of Commons, for instance, there is undoubtedly greater variety in masculine clothing than there was some thirty years ago. Then practically every M.P. wore morning coat and top hat. Those top hats’. Look at a picture of Parliament forty years ago. Each man sitting in the House wore a tall silk hat, and these hats were tilted at every imaginable angle. Such a sight is never seen nowadays, though some- half-dozen members remain faithful. When Mr Keir Hardie etnered the House of Commons early this century in a tweed suit it created a sensation, so strict was the adherence of every M.P. to the frock coat then in fashion. Nowadays, of course, the tweed suit is worn by many and calls for no comment. There are members—l give no names who appear immaculately dressed in morning coat, striped trousers, white spats, white slip to waistcoat, with top hat and carnation all complete! These are to be seen on the Labour as, well as on tho Conservative benches. , Nevertheless, though not quite so uniform as they used to be, men are dressed horribly alike whether m the House of Commons or out of it. AVomen courageously wear a variety of colours in a varibty of forms, and would never be so weak as to allow themselves to be tied down so rigidly to monotonous colours.