WHITTLED WAISTS

Evening Star, Issue 23421, 11 November 1939, Page 16

WHITTLED WAISTS

There is not a shadow of doubt about it, the small waist is more than a passing fancy—it is a new, or rather revived figure ideal. Flat busts, so popular after the last war, went out of fashion several years ago. Now it seems a s though snake hips have gone too.

Dressmakers and corset manufacturers are all working together on this new line. The new frocks can best be described as “ fitted and flared, with wasp waists, short skirts, and squared shoulder.” Alany model dresses and coats have the skirt gathered on at the hipline, which makes the hips look wide, with a waist that appears slim and feminine by contrast. The corset manufacturers, not wishing to return to tight lacing, nor to do anything to restrict the waistline by force, are working from the same angle, and saying, “ Well, let us make the hips look rounded.”

When buying a new controlette or weapon, one sees many clever ways used to give a. rounded effect to hips. But rounded hips are not spreading ones. Many controlettes are cut with shaped front panels that curve in to grip the waist and then continue ill a highly-accentuated, uplift bust-line. It is often remarked how surprising it is that women can always change their figure to comply with fashion’s demands. Seldom do we hear anything of the part played by the corsetiere in the seasonal change of the silhouette. The fact remains, however, that the right foundations are the basis o f bringing the silhouette up to date.