Pendulum Of Fashion

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 14, 20 January 1948, Page 5

Pendulum Of Fashion

Newest Modes Harking Back to Grandma’s Day . It would appear to mere male eyes that the moods of fashion move in cycles and tend to repopularise the early fashions that took the world by storm with their very daring - . Or could it be that the fairer sex is again becoming coy. and is returning to the bustle and fan of the mid-Victorian era? Or are women just gullible? If not, how is one to account for the so-called newest fashions, the “London line” and the ultra-fashionable “Paris line.” Latest Crazes Both these'latest crazes, for crazes they are, are merely pepped-up reversion to old modes, but look likely to sweep the country, and have both made their appearance at Whakatar already. ± i not the fashion parades of the 1920’s feature something very like the so-called latest model London line that has made its debut in the larger social circles and is now making its modern way into the smaller communities?

Did not the fashion parades of 1917-18 disport themselves in the full length skirts and the broad brimmed sun bonnets that are so prominent at the better summer socials? Was not the latest winter pencilslim fashion skirt wool, the rage of 1914, when the best-dressed women of the year displayed themselves in gowns of fully-pleated wool with a hobble-hem that permitted the toe of a shoe to peep forth daringly? Going Down, Down! Today’s fashionable Parisiennes are letting their hems down as far and as fast as they can, so Could it not be a possibility that the next fashion will be a reproduction of that once shocking Edwardian fashion of svelte backline—all the way down—with no bustle? And is it not a possibility that the 1950 modernists will be weai’ing a bustle? What Of Beach Wear ? So much for street fashions and evening wear. It seems clear that modes tend to repeat themselves. It looks a bit that way in beach wear, too. After all, though there is no historical authority for such a statement, is it not a assumption that Eve’s swimsuit was even more revealing than these latest masterpieces of provocative publicity? Verily, the clock would appear to be rushing backward, but speculation on what the future may yet borrow from the past is interesting, even exciting. Just depends how far back the pendulum is allowed to swing.