THE LONG SKIRT.

Otago Witness, Issue 3961, 11 February 1930, Page 79

THE LONG SKIRT.

TYRANNY OF DRESS DESIGNERS. LADY QUEENSBERRY’S VIEWS. (Fkom Oub Own Correspondent.) LONDON, November 26. At any fashionable dance in London to-day a woman with short skirts would belong to a past age. Long skirts for evening dress have won the day. The question now is: How far down towards the ground will the day skirt creep at the dictate of the designers? The Daily Mail hats been making a fight against the old tyranny of the long skirt. “ It remains to be seen,” says the Mail, “ whether women will band themselves together under some spirited leader and beat back the attack. In 1921 and 1924 they did it, when the short skirts won all along the line. If they combine they can get their own way. There is this very strong argument against the long skirt. It makes the wearer look old, whereas the short skirt has made grandmothers look like mothers, and mothers like daughters. The short skirt has also in its favour greater convenience, because the woman with a long skirt must sometimes carry it. as the Victorian female did. over her arm. The short skirt is certainly cleaner, since it does not sweep up the dust and mud: and it is indisputably more comfortable.” WILL NOT SACRIFICE HEALTH.

The Marchioness of Queensberry, who is a daughter of Mr Harrington Mann, the portrait painter, writes to the Mail on the subject. As to country clothes, she says, the short skirt is here to stay. “ Illogical as we are so often termed to be.” she continued, “ our equipment of commonsense will never again allow us to sacrifice health to fashion after our delightful taste of freedom.

“A crinoline may have been useful under which to kick the croquet ball to a more convenient spot nearer the hoop, but I think we take our games more seriously these days. Or is our sense of fair play more highly developed now that we can enter on more equal terms with men into all realms of life?

“A grossly unequal start will deaden ambition, and too much handicap cause indifference. The sensible, comfortable, and pretty clothes of to-day are an asset to women’s participation in the lives of men, if not the direct result of our independence. LONG. SWEEPING LINES.

“As to evening dress, this is quite a different matter. As a painter I am quite satisfied with the new dresses. I love long, sweeping lines to a dress, and the waist in its proper place seems to me most suitable. I have always made my sitters tie their belfi; in the place they were meant to be before the Paris dress designers rather cunningly improvised a low waistline to suit the elderly lady and thereby the one who orders the most clothes.

“In the new evening dresses I see distinction where I only saw a boyish standardisation before. For dancing, a long front to a dress must be cumbersome, but a long mermaid’s trail can always be gracefully held up and the front of the dress made to suit different requirements.

“ I would definitely advise women to band together to resist the reintroduction of skirts that sweep the ground. These must be horribly unhealthy as well as ugly. “ I often ask myself what goes on in a woman’s mind when she is choosing her new gowns. I think in nine cases out of ten she sees some other woman termed well dressed in a dress she recognised as having been originated by some famous Paris firm and decides to order one herself (if she can afford it).

“Are we so original after all? And do we not greatly fancy being shown bv Mme. Chanel or M. Patou what is correct for us to wear to be fashionable and sheeplike follow them into the pen? ”