Sweltering Males

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 562, 15 January 1929, Page 1

Sweltering Males

SERFS OF FASHION

Solving the Dress Problem

4XOTHEK division- -rises- -sharply be- ** tween the sexes this summer weather. The fair, gentler and weaker sex, besides all its other advantages, .becomes the cool sex, in diaphanous raiment tripping lightly to market, office or pleasure. But the stern sex, condemning itself viciously to the penance of tweeds and worsteds, becomes the bot and fuming sex, and the ill-treated serfs of Master Fashion.

Once upon a time the laugh used to be on the women for the absurdity of bustles and wasp-waists, the straining of the human frame into fantastic shapes. Feminine fashion has been led into sensible lines, and one cannot imagine more cool and delightful wear, both for the wearer and for the observer, than the light and scanty frocks which decorate the streets. COURAGE LOST Men have lost courage; the strongminded reformers who once, according to history, would lay down their goods and their lives rather than admit the slightest infringement of their liberty have gone from among the people. It is only with sadness or with irony that one can now repeat the lines: “We’re the sons of sires that baffled, Crowned and mitred tyranny. They defied the field and scaffold For their birthrights; so shall we.” Fashion has the men of Auckland by the forelock. He calls for a threepiece suit of tweed, absurd collaring of the neck and the t.ieing of it up like a decorated bedpost with that piece of flambuoyant silk, not to mention undergarments. They all give in, the boldest among them leaving off their vests. *■ Why should men wear coats in summer? Why should they wear starched or any kind of collar, relic, as it is, of the days when serfs had'bands of metal locked on their necks, inscribed with the name of the over-lord, so that all might know’ them as cattle? LESSONS FROM U.S.A. These reforms in dress are too courageous to come in our time. But there seems to be no valid reason why the lesson of American and Anglo-In-dians should not be followed. The citizen of no mean city of U.S.A. has his Palm Beach suits, lots of them of feather-weight suitings, and his straw hat. a much more sensible headgear than the sweltering felt one. The Bmobay business man has his unlined two-piece suits, also of the flimsiest material, and his sun-helmet. The main trouble with this dress would be the laundering. A man would need 10 or 15 of them, and they would have to

b© pressed.daily and laundered weekly and the bill woudl assume massive proportions. • This problem of summer dress for males was referred to Aucklanders today, including" The Sun's expert on fashion. Her “Suggestions for Sweltering Cheiks” are appended, and they certainly* solve half, the invisible half, o fthe ‘puzzle. ADAM'S EXAMPLE When-Adam was. a little lad, strolling around the U. of - -E.. he had a nice discrimination in suitable attire for summer days—-but his sense of elimination in clothes seems to have been lost by all his sons. Now there are whispers in the world of fashion that uUwhen the sea is calling, when the cool pungency of the deep woods beckons tlie picnoic-seeking folw, men will return, to. lighter clothes. For the first time Parisian couturiers have given serious attention to the question of delightful summer clothes for men, and now, after months of concentrated effort, behind drawn curtains, they are flinging open the floors of their salons and showing the fastidious men of the world all the beauty that is to be theirs this summer. Lingerie cut by the mhas a new and widely different line. No longer will sun-kissed limbs he irriated by the rough caress of woven B.V.D.’s — rather will they feel the soft insinuation of silken failties that glove and idealise their figures. Exquisitely dainty these new garments for he-men will be seen in all the most delightful colours, but more important than their flower-shading will be the magic of their cut. Silken vests that flow in gentle lines over softly- swelling chests, will graciously meet the moulding girdles that confine the proportion of too-generous hips, giving the wearers a smoothly rhythmic line of beauty from armpit to knee, and over that a trifle of an unper panti-gossamer light for summer days will hide in its silken meshes a garter tab or two to give the assurance of trim sox with cool, unsuspended freedom. BEWARE OF WRINKLES! "Wrinkles are fatal anywhere—and most important, fatality is in the male silhouette. Expensive bags of pristine flannel will lose all their chic effect because of a misplaced fold in the garments underneath, and the youth and lissome grace of the boyish figure beneath will be cruelly misjudged if the lingerie chosen is ill-fitting. So singlets and knickers should be as supple as your skin—preferably of elastic silken nets that yield to every motion of the body, cuts tlie chest into boyish lines of roundness, and adjust themselves to each varying pose without a single wrinkle or fold. Then with careful thought to the outer garments'—a prettily-chosen shirt of chiffon or georgette, a cummerbund of vivaciously patterned fabric, and a hat of some intriguing exotic straw. Auckland’s pretty boys will be able to go their blithesome way, happy in the knowledge that they are adorably cool, and that their every posture is a thing of beauty—every line of them a lovely rhythm,