MASCULINE FASHIONS.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVI, Issue 115, 13 May 1912, Page 6

MASCULINE FASHIONS.

Although to a certain extent tho average colonial obeys the dictates of fashion, yet it would seem that, in ■comparison with his English brother, he is a veritable drab. In the OM Country, the weight of the woollen suits and overcoats worn during the winter could not be borne in the hosit of the summer 'weather, so sharoiy defined is the contrast between tbe seasons. So tliait, after all, it is not to be wondered at that at the end >.t the long, dreary winter the fancy ot the English youth should "lightly turn to thoughts of"—clothes. TheLondon correspondent of the Sydney Daily Telegraph, writing on this sulject, speculates as to the possible identity of the dictator of the --laten fashion in Englishmen's clothes, "fii the days of the dandies," he says, '*i*> was merely a question of follow my leader, but to-day-.there is no le»:1er of fashion. The young bloods of tbe West End, who adorn Piccadilly and Regent Street with their presence, are the.victims of fashion, not the exponents of it. As far as diligent inquiry helps in the solution of th'<? mystery, it would seem that the manufacturing mills have somethingto do with deciding the fashions. Tie West End tailors have a share in it; leading actors plsty an-important-part, aaid „ the people who write articles in the Sunckiypapers on whi»> men should wear hav.e tlso a voice m the . matter." ... . In - speaking, of t?io frock coat, he .says that this garmentia nowadays only patronised by. [a, ipvr: conservative /elderly"meh, the moi-a-* ing coat hayingl for a, time. prove-J a very successful usurper. < But. thii-, in its,turn, is now being displaced' 'vy the lounge suit, corresponding to tin? .Australian sa<; suit. The morning suit, however, is still worn on St.ito poci^sions, when it is always accompanied by the silk hat, which, inspr?** of the advent of sac suits and- hbwlnihats, has lost none of', its old-time prestige. To the London porter, ewi in these democratic days, the wea>n-r of the silk hat is always "sir." Lastly, colored socks are touched on. The edict has gone ■ forth" in ' England.-that* "peacock hue* and rainbow effects " shall in future be shunned. There is one thing to be said of ourcolonial youth. Even if he is put in the shn>l3 by his better-clressed English brother, he has "gone the very limit" in fch» matter of colored- socks. Joseph* coat would pale into insignificano& beside the variegated splendors of some of the socks thut are■'displayal in our shop windows.