MAINLY FOR WOMEN

Greymouth Evening Star, 1 May 1937, Page 11

MAINLY FOR WOMEN

ITEMS OF INTEREST

MANNEQUIN’S LIFE.

SCOTTISH “JUMP-TO-ITS.”

Do you want a mannequin? In a small office perched above Union street you will find: a book with a list of 50 blondes, red-heads, and brunettes who are ready to set out at a moment’s notice to “model” in any part of Scotland (says a Weekly Herald” reporter). Not only Edinburgh, Aberdeen, and Dundee want their services, but also smaller town like Stirling, Crieff, and Castle Douglas. The “circuit” of the Glasgow mannequins extends as far as Belfast and Newcastle. Only about half a dozen Edinburgh girls do this work, and in Newcastle mannequins are practically non-existent. I discovered this in a chat with Dorothy Ogden, who runs a Glasgow mannequlin agency. She keeps 1 details of the girls’ measurements and colouring, and arranges their engagements for 'Shop parades and the private shows which take place in January and June, when the London gown manufacturers tour the country with their new models. “One of the big difficulties with mannequin work in Scotland,” Miss Ogden told me, “is that it comes; in spasms. When the shows are coming on I get requests for far more girls than I can supply—girls have even to be brought up from London—and then when the shows are over there is a long spell of no work. -‘Another difficulty is to get Glasgow girls big enough to wear the London models. They are not only too small but too slim as well. The taller a mannequlin is the better, but at least she should reach the sft Btiu mark.” Scottish mannequins, I was told, dislike photographic work; either they are camera-shy or they think the pay not worth the trouble of spending three or four hours under garish lights. At any rate they are so hard to persuade that London models 1 often have to be called up for this part of the work. , „ “And to get Glasgow children lor photographic work,” said Miss Ogden, “is almost an impossibility. Occasionally, seeing an exceptionally pretty child in the street or a tea room, J have suggested to the mother that she should allow it to be photographed. I am usually treated as if I, had proposed kidnapping the child.”

SOME REQUIREMENTS.

Mism Ogden trains girls' as mannequins by giving them a course of lessons in graceful walking. She does not think the elaborate training given in the London schools a necessity it tends to stereotype. Scottish mannequins are free to develop a style of their own. Besides, Scottish spectators like their mannequine to look natural rather than (Londoners dub this provincialism, with the result that very few Scots: girls find jobs in the south). Not all the Glasgow girls who aspire to be mannequins' are chosen tor training. The agency gets, applications from girls of every type, stou. and slim, tall and short. They think mannequin work must be marvellous. Many of them are already in good jobs< in offices or shops; and they, are usually advised to stick 10. them. Others are girls “at home’’ who think they have discovered a pleasant and colourful “light” job. . Miss Ogden believes in training only those who have a naturally graceful walk, an obvious dress flair, and that elusive quality, poise, as well as the correct measurements. • If I had had any illusions, about the lightness of a mannequin’s job, they were soon dissipated. For I was introdulced to a group of Glasgow models “Do you know',” said the willowy blonde girl with the leisured . air “that during show time we begin at 9 one morning, and sometimes 1 don t finish till 2 the next morning? And that often there is l not time for a meal till 10 p.m., when one snatches a sandwich in a hurry?” “And do yon know,’ added the dark girl with the sleepy, Joan Crawford eyelashes, “that the London men bring up about 130 numbers, and we go through the majority of them thiee or four times a day? We get about two minutes to "change and reappear looking as if our preparations naa lasted for hours. And can you , imagine how one’s bones feel after a day of nulling frocks on and off.” We went on to discuss parades. I heard how spectators’ critical remarks have an unhappy knack of drifting up to the platform and giving the performers’ smiles rather a steely gleam; and how even the most sophisticated have some memory of a heel cauteht in long draperies or a hat at an awkward angle. Somebody even confessed to having felt a fool whe i sho had to cycle on to the stage ’"'Cai ing a kind of pit’s four cycling s.i . several sizes too large for her. Bvoi’v mannequin feels nervoim when rhe is chosen for the bride. It mav be. they: suggested, that. He strains of the Wedding March lend the scene too much realism. "Anvway,” they said, “look out next time and you will see the brides bouquet. quivering.” . Mannequins are. sometimes asked to undertake unusual jobs. they

have, for instance, been called upon to provide the mannequin parade in a c-tnao play. Al one parade recently they were presented with scrips, and fouind that their show had developed into a “talkie.” An engagement at a Glasgow b.i m Exhibition gave them some awkwa’d moments. One girl’s job was to put together a wireless set, and it wa. 'frequently pointed ort to her that she held her tools upside down. Otheis had to hand out pamphlets on set construction. People asked them technical questions, and at first they ventured an answer. The ainazem :ik o the inquirers, however, was so giea that the mannequins decided to give up this radio advice service. Glasgow' mannequins don I. go in i » dieting or daily dozens. They simp y keep a good wave in their hair, ready to “jump to it” when the telephone rings. And in spite of th-dr grouses they thoroughly enjoy their job ot carrying the latest fashions over Scotland.

CONTROLLING A WIFE.

NAGGERS OF BOTH SEXES.

The case of the English wife who ■signed a document promising “never to nag” raises the question of a husband’s rights in the home. In this article from an exchange Helen Simpson deals in piquant manner with this intensely human topic. It is fairly generally recognised that in Englund at any rate, you cannot alter a person’s nature by Act of Parliament.

Nevertheless, certain citizens 1 retain a touching faith in the efficacy of scraps of paper, more especially when these are adorned by anything resembling a Government stamp. . Witness the gentleman who - required his fiancee to sign a document, in which she undertook not to nag, annoy or in any way disturb his conjugal composure after the knot had been tied.

Innocent gentleman! Does anyone really suppose that the resolute nagger will be deterred, by such a document, though it be weighty with all the stamps of Somerset House? The nagger is driven by an impulse stronger than Governments; an impulse which has pulled down empires before now. He or she nags, as a child gets into mischief, to attract attention. Naggers are people who would rather suffer than be ignored.

Deliberately I say he or she. For the man who cannot let well alone is no longer as rare as once he was, and he is difficult to cope with. We all know him.

He is, for instance, the man ■who demands soft roes in a month when, owing to restrictions on the part of Nature, the willing herring is' unable to' oblige. His wife explains, delicately, that soft roes have their seasons, like green peas, or strawberries. But it will not do. Up goes the balloon. “It’s always the same, wherever I ask for a thing always some excuse. Why can’t we ever have a decent meal in this house? Why can’t we have food like the Joneses?” The wife points out that Mr Jones’s income is about double her husband’s.

“That’s right, put it on to me. It’s my fault, of course, that we never have anything .fit to eat. I don’t make enough money. Well, just let me tell you —” , And so it goes on. The apparent cause is always a trifle of this kin 1 — food, or a new style of hairdressing or an inopportune hill. . The woman nagger is roused to action in much the same way, and often, curiously enough, by some inadvertence on the part of her children. What fundamental trouble causes these people to laislf and enrage the creature they love best? In my opinion you have to go to psychology for the 1 answer. And a course of investigation leads me to suppose that the instigator of the nagging quarrel is nearly always the partner who, in sonre way or other, feels inferior. This is the true meaning of that abused and misunderstood phrase, the inferiority complex. It does, not make its unhappy possessor shrink and fade away from strife. It makes him court trouble, for trouble means that he is at last succeeding in imposing his personality. He is making somebody else unhappy, or frightened or angry; and thus can offer his inner self, which knows him all too well, the assurance that he is really somebody after all. Here is another odd thing worth noticing. During the last century, we heard a great deal about the nagging woman. She was a publicly humorous character, and as such fou'nd her -way on to the music hall stage. Now the case is subtly altered. It is recognised that men, too, can be tiresome, vindictive, noisy about nothing. The psychologists here also have an explanation to offer. Is it not possible, they say, that the growing independence of women has had this result? The woman of Queen Victoria’s time sat at home and was nobody. She was idle and brooded, therefore she nagged. „ The woman of King George VI s day goes out, as often as not, to some job. It may be a paid job, in which, case she is contributing her share to the mutual budget and working off her superfluous energy upon strangers. It may be a job which carries' no salary, but in which she is somebody and can

impose her will. Either way, she has no grudge which needs to be worked off on her husband. He, poor man, nowadays, may be dependent on her. He, owing to cncumstances over which he has no control, may be the partner doomed to sit at home and twiddle his fingers, and work up for a storm. It is pitiful •enough. ... . But one thing is clear. No written declaration, no sealed and stamped document will keep the nagger quiet. A sense of humour will do. Congenial work will do it. But he who puls his trust in iscraps of paper to enforce peace in the home imagines, like the heathen, a vain thing.

QUEEN'S HOME LICE. The two little daughters of the King and Queen have already made a surprisingly large number of public appearances. The story of their public and private lives is told in photographs and' print in -‘The Family Life of Queen Elizabeth,” by Lady Cynthia Asquith (Hutchinson). “I have never met a child who seemed to be more in love with life,” writes Lady Cynthia, of the Kings elder daughter. “She is good natured as well as good mannered, and has splendid health and spirits.” As for her little sister, she possesses 1 a “strong personality, shows' promise of character as well as charm, has a remarkable talent for mimicry., loves music, and has a faultless ear. The Queen is a devoted mother who delights in choosing dainty frocks’ for her daughters, herself taught Princess Elizabeth to read, and is very firm about, not accepting too many invitations to parties. | Buckingham Palace, the writer de-le-lares. in spite of its- immense size and vast staff, will remain as genuine •i home under the guidance of Queen Elizabeth’s gentle but strong personality as any cottage in the land.