EXIT THE DANCE FROCK

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 66, Issue 5601, 5 April 1943, Page 2

EXIT THE DANCE FROCK

AUSTERITY FASHIONS COME TO AUSTRALIA

New Zealand women are learning slowly to give up their evening frocks. Recent reports in the newspapers about dance hall rulings on eveningdress for girls, brings this frivolous subject into prominence. In Australia evening frocks proper were discarded long ago-though at first not without a few taffeta-like sighs of regret. Somehow bare backs and arms and glittering phoney jewellery did not altogether “go“ with men’s service uniforms for dancing and ballrooms became crowded with dinner frocks. These quickly gave way to women’s uniforms as more and more girls and women went into the services with orders to wear uniform everywhere and for all occasions. The dwindling number of dinner gowns (modest floor length models with sleeves) disappeared with the drastic restrictions on clothing introduced so masterfully as a war-time necessity. The Department of War Organisation of Industry and the Department of Information had the biggest hands in this measure. The entire Commonwealth was flooded one morning with long reports on clothing restrictions. Feminine psychology did the rest. The evening frock was out for the duration. Women interpreted the regulations to suit themselves within the narrow limits of their newly acquired clothingcoupons. It was suddenly no longer done to wear long frocks. There were new fashions to follow.

A Cunning Move The D.W.0.1. with all its hard work and research on the subject of saving fabrics and manpower was not without cunning. It worked with a large and representative committee of women—editors of women’s papers, fashion editors, fashion designers, manufacturers, store departmental heads, and Gladys Moncrieff. They conferred for weeks and they were ruthless. Out went everything- but necessaries, though the maximum of comfort and chic with the minimum of material were big considerations. Out went pleats, flares, useless trimmings, embroideries. Shorts were on the banned list, but slacks were allowed for comfort and utility, though they had no belts, pockets, or cuffs, and were regulated as to width in the leg. Undies were ideals of simplicity, no lace, no embellishment—no waste of labour in their manufacture. Hems were regimented into two-inch depth only; pockets were pared down to the

smallest space, if any, and no frock was permitted to measure more than 60 inches in skirt width. Buttons were functional only. There were to be no more cute boleros, no matching jackets or coats. Suits took on the severity if lines beloved by tailors and ignored by dressmakers; and so it went on. Designers quickly drew conforming styles, dressmakers ran them up, and the high sounding D.W.0.1. staged mannequin parades. Fashion by Regulation With the co-operation of the nWspapers, the thing was done. A master stroke launched new fashions under the guise of regulations. Evening frocks were definitely out. But the feminine side of the clothing restrictions had not the heart to run its pencil through wedding dresses. They stayed. The war bride could still be as traditional and tulley as her purse would allow and the stores could provide. But about those dance frocks—the changing pattern of war-time life aided and abetted their elimination. Dry cleaning was no longer available for evening wear, and unless the owners ‘were willing to risk them, in soap and water, they became useless. Somehow everything conspired against them. Shortage of taxis was another bar to ball gowns. It is neither easy nor pleasant to trail a long frock in and out of a crowded tramcar or bus, and it is not a pretty prospect to walk any distance in evening shoes and flowing skirts. Also, the formal balls, so much a feature of Australian pre-war night life, did not take place any more. Regulations again. All the girls got out their “good blacks.” They looked good in packed ballrooms with an escort in uniform. There was never a suggestion that exclusive night clubs or ordinary dance halls should debar women not in evening dress any more than they would dream of keeping out soldiers on leave.

Coupons played the final stroke. Though regulations did not specifically forbid evening frocks, the coupon allowance made it virtually impossible to acquire enough material. Hoarders with material put by reviewed their plans for glamour and looked to the new fashion angle. Stage frocks were allowed and actresses could wear evening gowns under the heading of “costumes.” Se> the pride of the wardrobe found itself a “costume,” a “period piece” to be looked at now and then, or turned into a new cushion cover or some not-so-austere undies.