“SHIRT SLEEVES”

Southland Times, Issue 20833, 23 July 1929, Page 8

“SHIRT SLEEVES”

NO BAN IN INVERCARGILL. COATLESS DINERS WELCOME. Evidently Mr A. J. Cook, secretary of the Miners’ Federation in England, would have no difficulty in securing his luncheon in his shirt sleeves in Invercargill. Following on a cable from London on July 18, which said that Mr Cook had been refused lunch in a restaurant on Southampton Row because he appeared at the table m his shirt sleeves, a Times reporter interviewed several manageresses of local restaurants and asked them what they would do if a coatless diner walked in and ordered lunch. The replies varied, but they were all basically the same and to the effect that Mr Cook or any other gentleman could please himself whether or not he removed his coat providing he was decently clothed and not inclined to make a nuisance of himself.

One manageress said: “I think the whole thing is ridiculous. Men are so conservative that they have to smother themselves in high collars and heavy clothing all the year round. They like to call we women the weaker sex, but we are stronger where clothing is concerned. We have the courage to dress sensibly in hot weather and we. do not go around with our throats muffled up even at this time of the year. If a man behaves himself and pays for his meal he is welcome to eat it in his shirt sleeves.” Another said: “The manageress who ordered Mr Cook out of her restaurant should not have been in charge of it. Young men come in here in the summer time with open shirts and some of them show half of their chests, but as long as they are orderly we serve them. Mr Cook probably had a collar on, and I would sooner see a man in his shirt sleeves wearing a collar than a man in a coat with his shirt wide open.” “But conditions are very different in the Old Country,” said the reporter. “There is no difference,” was the reply. “I have served gentlemen without coats in Edinburgh many years ago. I remember a gentleman who came in with a scarf arountl him in place of a belt and he was served like anyone else. And that was a place where all classes, including peers, took their lunch,” and the manageress mentioned several well known members of the peerage. As the question of summer clothing for men had been raised, the reporter called upon several men’s outfitters and was informed that the demand for lighter summer clothing had been rapidly increasing during recent summers. One outfitter said: “It is ridiculous 'for men to wear the same clothing in summer and winter, but still they do so. One firm in this town encouraged its male employees to wear canoe shirts last summer, and I think that they were working along the right lines. We are asked to sell summei; clothing while we are dressed in clothes that make a man uncomfortable. It is as ridiculous as a bald-headed, man trying to sell hair restorer. I am not in favour of shirt sleeves in restaurants because I think that looks too much like making hard work of a meal, but I think that men should discard their conservatism and adopt light coats for summer wear. The flannel trousers which were, introduced two years ago are a great improvement and have taken on very well, but men are still expected to wear tight collars and heavy coats.”

Another outfitter said: “There has been a marked change in men’s underwear during recent years. Heavy woollen underclothing was very popular at one time, and still is in some country places, but. the majority of men have gone in for cotton underwear or very light woollen garments. There is still a "great deal of room for improvement, for a man’s suit is heavier than all of a woman’s garments put together; and yet they call women the weaker sex.”