HOW STYLES ARE BORN PARIS DESIGNERS AT WORK

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20891, 24 August 1939, Page 4

HOW STYLES ARE BORN PARIS DESIGNERS AT WORK

When you see fashion's latest creation in a shop window doesn’t it look easy—so easy that one would think anybody could do it. Dress designing at its best is a fickle business, 'hie never knows how a new creation will be received by the general public. And no one can accurately gauge the public taste —without Irving it first. Today next season’s new dress styles are being built up step by step. They are deliberately built up, not merely out of the mind, hut rather by dint of some sight one sees while roaming all over the world in search for new ideas. The sleeves of one of my most sue-' cessl'ul dresses was the result of seeing Rumanian peasants dressed up says a noted Paris designer). A new style collar or yoke may have been inspired in the Argentine type of dress, as one of my own creations happened to be. All this means, of course, that a diess designer cannot sit comfortably in his studio and map out the first idea that conies into his head. Women nowadays want greater novelty than rehashed ideas. It means travel —and plenty of it. Some of the world’s most expert dress designers think nothing of spending six months of every year combing the outskirts of the* world tor new ideas. The remainder of I lie time is filled in by putting into practice the ideas that struck them as having great dress possibilities. Jn dress designing many new styles ore born but comparatively few come to maturity, one might say. A creation suited to one people may not be such a difficult proposition of course. Overseas Trends Watched But most Parisian fashion houses have to keep a watchful eye on the preponderance of women overseas, study their likes and dislikes, then formulate something in a dress creation that will appeal to all. The world today knows that anything with the stamp of Paris on *it will .be looked at longingly. That is why we insist on a new creation or dress style possessing a wide, popular appeal. W hen a new dress creation is born there may he 'JO or even 50 people connected with it, but only one or at the most two persons are present at the actual birth. The parls are split up between different workers so that they cannot tell from Adam what the new design will be like. This secrecy is essential in that it prevents anyone so minded giving away inside information to tlie touts who are always on the look-out for details that will sell for high prices to perhaps a rival house or even interested persons overseas. When at last a new creation or dress is assembled only picked and tried workers are employed. Often they are sent to some remote spot to execute the final assembling and finishing off. The first the world knows of it is that the dress is born, with perhaps a hint of its popularity in almost every European capital. By this time much of the money has been made by this or that house which is running the venture. The latecomers or those who take to copying other people’s ideas get but a short look in and sometimes come off

t losers. t It must be remembered that fashI ions arc always changing, and by the time they are trying to recoup their . losses new season's models are well 1 under way. Then the same tilings 1 happen again—and keep happening, r' Having decided on the style the next - consideration is the material. Some materials make up better than others, > as you can imagine. Also some mater- . iuls are 100 light in weight, others too l heavy. A dress with yards and yards ' of tulle or similar material may look • j j well on a very thin person because it lilhelps to "fill her out.” But on a flponny woman such a material would -E-mly accentuate her bad points and - make her unbecomingly fat or too » plump. The next consideration is what is ; the best all-round colour. This is a ; tricky problem, for what may suit one 5 person may look decidedly out of place on another. Eye colour, colour of the i hair and natural complexion tints have ■ all to be weighed up carefully. This l may call Lor weeks of study on the - part of experts, and high-paid experts at that. 1 Altered As They Go t Most dress creations are not built F tip complete in the first instance. As . likely as not they need altering all j over until a satisfactory model is arj rived at. Here a little more fullness is more i pleasing to the critical eye as well as adding greater comfort to the wearer, j There a little gathering-in is called , for to create a more pleasing balance . generally. , For this reason the dress during its embryo s.tage is simply tacked so that everything is readily adjustable. Now comes the actual wearing of the new dress creation- by a manne--5 quin. Like the actual dresses them--5 selves mannequins also vary a great • deal, so the most suitable one to wear 1 this new style or that must be found. Sometimes this takes weeks of diligent searching. And possibly when she is found she is already engaged 1 by some other house at a high salary. 5 That means an offer of even greater reward must he held out before we • can secure her services—and not always then. ’ She may have contracted with our • rivals for two or three years ahead. 5 In that case Hie search for someone else who is suitable lias to be carried 5 Oil. » [ Must Be “Exclusive.” t And now we come to the most disr heartening item of all—unsuitability ■ of a new style or design for general . public wear. It is a rare occasion . when a new creation is judged com- . pletelv satisfactory on all points for it to pass out the first time. More r. often it involves weeks and weeks of l careful study before it comes up to the i experts standard of what it should be. , If one new style out of 50 catches . on at once, it is a red-letter day. The 5 other 40 dresses are destroyed. If i they were sold it might be some rival . firm would come in possession of them and so gain an idea of the lines we , were working on. Too, they might so i improve on one of our cast-offs to an extent that it became next season’s popular creation. t That would never do. If a dress is f not exclusive it is nothing!