POTENTIAL BEAUTY

Evening Star, Issue 22273, 26 February 1936, Page 14

POTENTIAL BEAUTY

“ Every woman has the potentialities of beauty within her grasp if she learns how to develop them." Miss Margaret Vyuer, renowned society mannequin, to whom, of all the mannequins in London, fell the honour of wearing the trousseau garments of the Duchess of Gloucester, and who returned to Sydney by the Strathaird on a holiday visit to her parents, is emphatic on that point, states the Australian paper ‘ Woman.’ “ I think,” she said in a special interview, “ that the most interesting feature of the two years I have spent abroad has been the revelation of the things that can be done to develop beauty, charm, attraction—whatever it is about women that makes them stand out—with the right dressing, the right coiffure, and the right cosmetics. “ About 2 per cent, of French women are beautiful. 1 But about 99 per cent, of them are attractive. They have been learning the art of enhancing their charms since they could toddle, and they are the smartest women in the world—and the most attractive. Terrible Awakening. “ When I first went to Paris—and Patou asked me could 1 mannequin—--1 replied, ‘ Yes ’ i thought 1 could. But the awakening was just terrible. After 1 had been appointed as a mannequin in 'his salon I found 1 knew nothing about it. He was cruel—he didn’t allow me to wear but one frock in a whole month, but I had the chagrin of standing by and watching other mannequins parade because Patou will not allow any mannequin to parade until he is satisfied that she is perfection. He said 1 slouched—he hit me on the back—he prodded me in the parts where 1 stuck out—he said 1 walked like a piece of stick—-he said my hands were terrible—my hair worse —until 1 just cried and cried and felt there was nothing I would ever be able to do. But that bitter first six months’ training was worth while. J found when 1 came to London that many of the big London designers had already seen me parading for Patou—and knew me For, in London, if a girl has the reputation of being able to model for Patou she is considered good enough to mannequin for anyone.” Miss Vyner, who, in spite of her extreme youth, was a startlingly beautiful girl before she left Sydney, has intensified the almost luminous quality of her lovely complexion. She has the natural suntan skin which is so attractive with fair hair and blue eyes, and so sought

after by the aid of cosmetics overseas. Her fair hair, which is the texture of spun gold, she wears in a loose little cluster of curls about the nape of her neck, and at the point of the parting on the side she pins a small white camellia. Her figure has the same, sinuous grace as it had before she left Australia, and when she was wont to spend her Sunday mornings on the harbour clad in the briefest shorts and shirt, hel- - blowing to the breeze. Only it has developed in grace. Couturiers Indifferent. Apropos of her remarks concerning the potential beauty in every woman, Miss Vyner said that for the most pan the big couturiers are rather indifferent on the subject in regard to their clients. These arc either very rich and ugly—when no attempt is made to do other than sell them the frock . they desire—or rich and beautiful, in which case they usually have a very good idea of their own beauty and its requirements. “ I have often longed to take a plain customer aside and suggest improvements in her coiffure, her skin treatment, and her clothes, but the designer does not like it. He is of the opinion that if,a woman is willing to pay the price for any garment why bother to disillusion her as to its unsuitability to her type. This job is usually left to the beauty specialist, and she attends to it very well.” The Smartest Clothes. Miss Vyner, without mentioning specific names, said that she had noticed several Australian girls who. while pretty, had not been particularly smart or striking in Australia, blossomed into ravishing beauties under the subtle hands of good beauty and hair specialists, and with the addition of carefully chosen clothes. “ The smartest clothes are always the plainest, but their cutting has to be just faultless.” Miss Vyner, who has spring engagements to fulfil in London or New Yorv (wherever she is required to go), expects to return to her chosen work by the end of February.