PARISIAN DRESS DESIGNER ARRIVES IN N.Z.

Greymouth Evening Star, 26 April 1949, Page 10

PARISIAN DRESS DESIGNER ARRIVES IN N.Z.

M. Rene Thevenot, the first Parisian couturier to take up an appointment ■ in New Zealand, arrived in the Mataroa on his way to Dunedin to become lecturer in dress designing at the Home Science School of the University of Otago. M. Thevenot is a lively, blueeyed young Frenchman, full of vigour and enthusiasm for his new appointment. On his arrival he was wearing a jacket of the Free French Forces in which he served during the later stages of the war. He also wore the ribbon of his- Croix-de-Guerre, won in fighting during which he was wounded just before the British landings in France. M. Thevenot said he had entered into a contract to teach for one year at the Home Science School. He had always wanted to secure an overseas appointment and was offered this opportunity through the organisation of ’dress designers in Paris. He was surprised to find that the English he had learned at college and a little he had cicked up in France was standing him in good stead. He acquired more fluency with English on the voyage out and is now quite confident in his speech.

A Family Business He said that his family had been in the dress designing business for many i years and his father owned a very large establishment in Vichy, one of the leading fashion centres of France. He studied under his father and worked with him in his business. He also did dress designing in Paris. Dress designing was, of course, a large industry in France, said M. Thevenot. A big business was done with both Britain and the United States. Dresses often sold from £5O to £lOO each, but the cost of running a designing establishment was very heavy. There was not only the work of designing to be done, but also models to be paid, long hours spent in sketching, making and adjusting creations, and much money to be spent on the preparation of collections for exhibition. Then taxation was extremely high and proved a heavy burden. He had time 'to see the 1949 collections of leading couturiers at exhibitions in Paris in February before he left, said M. Thevenot. Skirts Slightly Shorter ' • The tendency was towards a slight shortening of skirts, which appeared to be stabilising at 12 inches from the ground. The waistline, which had been high last year, was now a little lower, sometimes with small false hips. A feature of the new styles were kimono sleeves coming straight from sloping shoulders without seams and to threequarter length. Deep and sharp Vnecklines were favoured. Hats were either very large-brimmed or very close-fitting, with short hair styles. The colours most used were black, yellow and pink and there were many checks

and some flowers. Coats were often very large, with large collars and kimono sleeves. M. Thevenot has brought magazines and his own drawings and notes on ! current fashions as well as on the i principles of dress designing. He is I not certain yet exactly what form his teaching is to take, but he is keen to be at work again. He has the enthusiasm of an artist and the typical vivacity of a Frenchman.