THE MODERN GIRL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18322, 12 August 1921, Page 8

THE MODERN GIRL

ARTISTS’ REPLY TO MRS KENDAL.

Mrs Kendal's criticisms of the modern girl and hor plea for a return to midVicforiun manners, which were reported in this'column on Friday last, have attracted much attention at Home. In her day, Mrs Kendal said, girls were proud of showing i a white neck in evening dress, but to-day they could not do so owing to the exposure of their throats to sun and wind. She* could not bear to see a woman smoke. Th*o were many other counts in her indictment, but those are the points which appear to havo aroused most interest. Mr J. \J. Shannon, R.A., and Mr Ambrose M'Evoy expressed disagreement with Mrs Kendal about the beauty of girls' necks, but Miss Anna Airy criticised the "dreadful throats and shoulders" due to sunburn. . M> M'Evoy»said he could not acree with Mr* Kendal that the effect of the open air on the throat was bad or that the modern woman's neck was less beautiful than that of ifhe Du Maurier woman. "In Mrs Kenday women were pretty," he said. "Tqi-day they are returning to the Greek typfc "and are beautiful. The reversion is, in my opinion, an improvement, and is due to physical exercise and a love of out of dodrs. Tho throat and neck of the modern woman are more beautifully formed, even if ilightly tanned, than were the snowy threats and necks of the contemporaries of Mr* Kendal's girlhood. But there is little ground for comparison between two totally different types of physique." . Mr J. J. Shannon, R.A., whose paintings of the modern girl in evening dress are-a feature of this year's Royal Academy, entirely disagreed with Mrs Kendal about low-throated out-of-door dress. "A closed throat," he said, "does not give the neck a chance to develop. There should be no pressure and, 1 think, no strings of beads. What does a little sunburn matter? Ihe girl who has an open throat does not get colds in tho throat and does not sutler fro& her lungs; she is healthier and huppieiTand none tne worse for going with tfle timbs. I cannot think a girl beautitul who do 4 not look healthy. I don't agree with Mri Kendal—unless, perhaps, about smoking; Girls do smoke too much, and perhaps dresses are sometimes a little too short. But, even so, I for one, do not want any return to 'mid-Victorianism.' " Miss Anna Airy wa3 inclined to agree with Mrs Kendal. "I agree with Mrs Kendal about ugly necks in the evening," she said. "Nowadays boating and lawn tennis in lowcut- or open-work blouses are responsible for somo dreadful throats and shoulders when they are exposed in evening dress. Ugly sunburn which does not come off, patterns of the lace burnt through light blouses, are not pretty. I do not think th&i- average girl looks so well to-day or so nice as she has done at other periods. She* must learn to stand straight, and not imitate an 'S'—a habit that has been very prevalent of late. Girls are in many ways much healthier, but there is a tendency to overdo it and get angular and ugly. The girls of 17 of Mrs Kendal's day were pretty and charming, but the girls of to-day look as if they had not grcrwn out of their puppy-hood. 'femokmg, too, has grown tremendously. I am fond of smoking myself, but if you watch many of * the smokers you will see thai they really do not like it. They never tastfe the tobacco, they handle the cigarette, puff it, and wave it about. Modern fashions, too, are not pretty. I would like to iee things better made. Nearly all the jumpers one sees look as if they had been 'ruft up' at home. They are like small sacks, and are not becoming to the girl -with the 'ST curve. But in one thing the modern woman is certainly ahead of the mid-Victorian. She has got rid of the dingy colours which were the lady-like weflr of those days; and which, when they were shabby, as well as dingy, were a ' trayio sight. Nowadays it does not offend anjj class code to wear the most vivid coilurs. But the modern hats! They are not! millinery. Most of them are only heap coverings—there is no art in them; no "gift for suiting the frame to the face. Th6y are as bad as the jumpers." Mr Herbert Dunhill, of the pipe and tobacco firm, was much amused at Mrs Kendal's attack on the woman smoker. "EVery 'age abuses the follies of its successor, but is usually silent about that of its ho said. "In Mrs Kendal'sf<jiirlnood women were just beginning to grilfe up snuff-taking, which was a far ]ess]weasing habit than smoking. In the of our great-grandmothers, many of tfiese strong-minded ladies are seen seatwf with their snuff-boxes beside them. The cigar, tdto, was not unknown to their predecessors."