A LONDON ACTRESS DISCUSSES FASHIONS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19120, 12 July 1930, Page 20 (Supplement)

A LONDON ACTRESS DISCUSSES FASHIONS.

INTERVIEW WITH MARIE TEMPEST. By JOAN LITTLEFIELD (Our London Correspondent.) Miss Marie Tempest, the inimitable comedienne, who probably has the greatest chic of any English actress, is now playing the leading part in Mr St Tohn Ervine’s comedy. “ The First Mrs Fraser,” at the Haymarket Theatre. LONDON, May 3. “ Long skirts in the davtime? Never! No modern woman will put up with the tyranny her grandmother suffered in the cause of fashion.” Miss Marie Tempest is nothing if not emphatic. There is a fascinating brusoueness about her; she speaks crisply and to the point, and one senses the bc-rn comedienne in her smile, her tip-tilted nose, the twinkle in her eyes. I saw her in her dainty dressingroom at the Haymarket Theatre just before the matinee, and our talk turned naturally to the vexed problem of dress. For is she not that rare thing a fashionable woman, who is not fashion’s slave, whose individuality will always assert itself? She was wearing her first act dress —a filmy dream of golden chiffon, with a little coatee—and with it a little yellow Bangkok hat. And the dress was long. Short Dresses for Afternoon. “ But I shall never wear long afternoon dresses off the stage.” said Miss Tempest. “ One should dress practically in the daytime. But at night when everv woman should try to look her best, then one should wear long, flowing dresses—and long gloves. I love gloves. No woman looks dressed in the evening without them. I have always worn them. Sometimes I was the only woman at a theatre or a dance wearing them. But I didn’t care! ” I asked Miss Tempest whether she thought the new and more feminine fashions would put an end to uniformity in dress. “ No,” she said. “ There has always been uniformity in dress and there always will be. I can remember when

in Paris years ago, every woman bought her tweeds at one shop, her blouses at another, and her frocks at another. And then we walked down the Rue de la Paix, one after the other, all looking exactly alike! Mass production, however, is not possible with the newest clothes. They cannot be turned out by a factory. They are too individual. Each garment must be made by a dressmaker to suit each client. Mass production, however, has been a great factor in improving the general level of taste, which has risen enormously in England in the last ten or fifteen years. “ I think America has been partly responsible for this improvement. For it was the United States who first introduced mass production. “ The simpler fashions of recent years have killed the supremacy of the Paris dressmakers, though. At one time no one in this country who wished to be fashionable would dream of buying her clothes anywhere but in Paris. But now London dressmakers are just as good. And often their workmanship is better. Personally I buy all my clothes in London.” The Movable Waist Problem. I asked Miss Tempest whether she had anything to say on the problem of the “ movable ” waist. “ Waists will go higher and higher,” she replied. “In a few years we shall have Empire styles again.” Then there was an interruption. Mr Graham Browne, Miss Tempest’s husband, who is acting with her in the play, came in to have his hair brushed! “ I always do it myself,” explained Miss Tempest brushing vigorously. “ Men never seem to know what suits them r and I do like to see his hair brushed together behind like the tail of a duck. There you are and off you go! ” (This to her husband as she shooed him off.) The upraised voice of the call-boy was too insistent to be denied. ‘‘There! You see.” cried Miss Tempest mischievously. And with a flutter of yellow she was gone. (Copyright.)