LONDON'S CLOTHES.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume L, Issue 175, 2 November 1917, Page 5

LONDON'S CLOTHES.

Something might be said of the chan* §es that three years of war have rbugat about in our. clothes. Evening dress is opt abolished, but it is becoiuing much" less customary in and restaurants, and people coming up to London who used to bring evenjijg clothes with tliem no longer do so. Stiff white collars are_ disappearing. aud the soft collar is worn by all classes. Tho ,%anocratic process had already • set in. air, tile House' of Commons; One remembers tlie shock that Mr v Keir HftTdie's cloth cap created on its first appearance there, but' it: has advanced' immensely since the war began- Fpogk coats are in a small and die-hard minoritjv Spats are on their last legs. Topfriats survive miraculously, it jnight se"em, until one remembers their enduring qualities, so that their persistence is onlyi a form of war economy after all. And with, all these change* mariy old points of rigid etiquette have ed away. M.P.'s may be seen smoking 1 * , ill the'members' lobby, not; it is, true, ■while the House is "but immediately after it'has'riven. The corridors that were sacrosanct before the -w£r are now invaded by girl typists and girl messengers. A British wllo looked like a wTndow-cleaner.'has seen sauntering across the lobby with his hands in his pockets through little groups of Ministers and eH'cr states-: men.