AN EYE FOR CLOTHES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 29, 25 September 1946, Page 8

AN EYE FOR CLOTHES

AMERICAN YOUTH’S FLAIR WINNER OF AWARDS Winning five awards for teenagers —all announced on the same day—that is the record of Urias Fritz, of New York City, writes a correspondent in the Christian Science Monitor. Ux-ias is a 17-year-old student at the Fashion Institute of Technology and Design. Thanks to a 2000 dollar scholarship award, which topped all the others which he received upon being graduated from high school late in January, he is to complete his two years at the Institute tuition free. In addition he will receive 10 dollars a week for maintenance expenses during the 40 weeks of each school year. This substantial help to a youth coming from a large family in Har-‘ lem, a youth whose previous school record has shown outstanding character traits, springs from a joint! decision made a couple of years ago by Labour, Management, and the public school system. At that time a fund was established to ensure the further education of promising high school students headed for positions in the apparel industry. Through this, the students with highest achievements in scholarship, character and workmanship were to receive 800 dollars in cash from the Educational Foundation for the Apparel Industry and free tuition from the Board of Education.

It is easy to see that Urias wants to be a tailor. But it was quite as apparent on the day, soon after hiS‘ graduation from high school, when announcement of the awards in music, athletics and other fields was made, that experience in working and playing with others interests him deeply. “I usually volunteer for jobs around the classroom,” he confided, after a lively effort to produce a chair for the reporter. “I like to make myself useful and help others when possible. I was secretary of my class and, later, treasurer to the senior council.”

In addition, he was manager of the basketball and track team, he coached track members and had charge of the student cafeteria. In this connection, he once had a constructive suggestion to make. It was that students of one group do a clean-up job in the cafeteria before leaving the lunch room, instead of leaving the “remains and wreckage” for the oncoming contingent. So he met with the principal of the school, presented his plan—and it worked. While in high school, Urias made jerkins for boys, also jackets and trousers. When he was judged for his work, it was the use of his hands and the thoroughness with which his work was done that counted in his favour. Clothes appealed to his professional eye from the time' he was a small boy. “I have four brothers, all of whom like to dress well,” he explained. ‘I used to look wistfully at their clothes, hoping to make as good an appearance myself, some day. Then I decided to jump into the profession, because I thought it would be something the whole family would appreciate. I like conservative clothes the best, especially when they are brightened by a bit of colour.” It developed later in the interview that piano playing is a “side line” with Urias. Here, again, the desire to fit into the group pattern showed up, since one of the reasons for this avocation is that “music is a hobby of the family and one of the most important things is getting along with others.”