WAR WORK DRESS FOR WOMEN

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2729, 25 March 1916, Page 12

WAR WORK DRESS FOR WOMEN

QUAINT WORKSHOP AND FARM FASHIONS "Don't you over lose patience?" I asked the Labour Master —a man, of sympathy all compaot; iron-grey and smiling and benign. A farmer had just gone out, and the office tingled with his sarcasm about the girls who went _ hoeing turnips in open-work stockings and patent shoes." "Novel' I" cooed the master. "What's the use of quarrelling with human nature? Why, if a man crawled in here on all fours and asked for a job as artillery horse, I'd advise him to wait till Jie'd grown sixteen hands!" And the exchange shook with the masters mirth.

"We've got to recognise that women are women—and jolly good workers, too, if you ask mo. 'Without them victory will tarry, : says Lloyd George. Why he said 'tarry,' 1 don't know —unless because it rhymes with marry, and he tlioiight liis girl munitioneers were furnishing homes with the aid of bombs and higli-explosive shells. "Why shouldn't they look smart, anyway? Why shouldn't the chauifeuse make the most of her oilskins, and the tram conductor glance at the glassy advertisement she known'll tell her if her cap's on straight? All things in reason.

"Make.up your mind that our substitutes cling to dress. 'Course, some of 'cm overdo it! I'm sorry to see fine ladies with dangly earrings at the lathe. Jewels don't go w r ell with oily smears and honourable dirt. But that's a transition stage, and I've got a hand in the transit. 'What snail I wear on war service. o ' I'm asked each day by keen girls who want to look tho- part in the tragedy. 'Will a sports coat do ?' 'How shall I dress my liair ?' 'And are skirts likely to catch in the machines ?'

"Sensible enough, you sea. I tell 'em to go and see Miss Stracliey's acetylenewelders. Fusers of aeroplane parts, in dark-blue pinafores, tidy caps, and fearsome goggles. Begular witches,_patting molten metal in a cloud of sparks, yet well on to their job, unconcerned as dairy ladies at the butter-tub. Or there are appealing modes in thc-Birmingham hives. • I saw 2000 o' the sprucesfc in drab overalls and dinky khaki caplets lined with gram.. Engaged to our Allies, I fancy, for in the glare and clatter French or Belgian flags waved from each machine.

"Our women workers must dress suitably. An ovp.rlong skirt cost a girl attendant her life on the Tube not long agq. And as np metals may be carried where explosives_ are, .hairpins are taboo in a place like Kynoch's, all cordite and T.N.T. No nails in your boots in the danger-house, .no isteel buttons on a blouse. But the big armament firms aro ever so considerate, their new hands more than mindful of what the now duties entail.

They ro making grand money, those pretty creatures in the xigly crafts. They can afford to wear munition dress—for evening dress follows it; when the tale of fuse_ and cartridge is over for the day. You'll see female troops in uniform at the Sheffield works; eager, defthanded maidens who'll machine a thousand copper shell-bands in the ten-hour shift.

| "That's why tho nimble parlourmaid . dons cap and apron. Slio's earning £4 a week and dresses ('course after hours) [ better than her late mistress over did. What's more, she talks knowingly of Exchequer Bonds! Still, the soberest is apt to braid her hair with ribbons in the whizzing shop. Why shouldn't the piecework lady look nice, though thero's no one to see her but the forewoman—an amazon in butcher-blue with her heart set on gaugos and grenades? "I've seen pretty brooches for the workshop warrior with 'On Shell-Work' done in red onauiel. And 1 believe the stores are showing one-piece frocks from i'aris, with monstrous pcckets. Gowns for'tile lift-girl, tooj smocks for tho gardener; and for tho window-cleaner a mannish outfit that passed ill failure and a Hood of tears. ■

"Never mind. We'll soon straighten out tlic-so modes and robes—all the way from tho lady, luvber's—she'll affect a red and whito wipe—to the dcbtcollector, whom we'll clothe in armour; the dentist, veiled against laughing-gas, ancl tho girl grocer with ultra-Louis heels that reach the big cheese and side of bacon on tho highest shelf. "I'd have the lady traveller in tho latest mode and the gardener in the soonest mended. As a farrnor I fear the town-bred girl will never know how to dross. She's no great success, and I m not sorry for it. Neither is tho man farmer—a hard, hard man fighting Nature's devils all the time, and now up against the angels! "It's weird work for a woman to turn out at four on a winter's morning, call the cows (which is nice as a son"-), and go round with the bottle to tho delicate calves. 'Twould puzzle Pro- \ te *>s to be dressy on jobs like these. 'You 11 see dairymaids in dainty prints and aprons—for the first week, lire shepherdess in breeches and leggings would make Watteau and Lanoret turn, in their graves. I was at .a public meeting when the President of tho Board of Agriculture introduced the shy and sceptical farmer who bolts lilco a frightened Tabbit at the swish of amateur skirts. The Minister hoped that Mr. Broadacre would advise the novice about her clothing! Another speaker had seen the reckless flapper plodding the winterploughs in dainty cloth-topped boots! "And then arose Miss La Motte, Inspector of Women's Labour under the Beard. Her ideal was a short, skirt, stout boots and gaiters, and a knitted cap. No room for coquetry, you see, in a sty. Then women who had to deal with animals should never wear a hatpin. Hatpins are well enough in a crowded omnibus, but in tho byre ■ they'll goad somo two-horned thing W* murder. '

"So that, all told, farm fashions are snary, scary things. Hodge himself must stay _on tho land, for his job won't _ admit of pretty raiment and a place in the public eye and papers. It's a pity. No reason, though, why Maud shouldn't come into the kitchen garden. And line! fingers can pitch maize to the finer strains of poultry and ravish new-laid eggs from the straw. Work of that sort let in the all-occasion coat and a quite smart skirt of navy serge. Nothing fancy—just open-airish and sane.

"Make no mistake. Woman do think o? their looks when they drive a lorry or go tho _ postman's round. Dross crops out in all emplovers' problems. It's louder than discipline, poor pay, weak spoiling and arithmetic, 'or the strong lauguago which these entail. Convey-to tho woman workers that she looks nice and her last ounco of overtime is yours. v "Opinions about her vary. >The Post Office is all praise, the Stock Exchange aloof and cautious. But all are agreed that dress is the ruling passion of woman's life, not to be slain by a world in arms. Why. death itself is cxorcssed in terms of cloth and crane. If you know what our women worker spend in mourning!" —1.P., in the "Daily Mail."