A DRESS CRISIS

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 38, 14 February 1930, Page 13

A DRESS CRISIS

A new crisis has arisen in the Lon-don-Paris dress war by tho announcement that spring collections will show no more trailing trains and "peacock" ends to evening dresses, and no more heel-catching panels on afternoon dresses, states "The Daily Chronicle." Instead, dresses for both afternoon and evening are to be the same length all the way round, and'this will vary from half-way down the leg to the ankle. In. forcing dress designers to abandon one unhygienic and inconvenient fashion women seem only to have succeeded in getting themselves offered one which presents an even more sorious problem—that of adding 10 years to thoir ages by hiding thoir logs. Middle-aged women and those who have passed 30, never to return, are seriously alarmed at this effort on the part of the dress designers to take from them the increased span of youthfulness that short skirts have gained for them since tho war. "Skirts that dipped at the back and woro short to the knees in front were often transparent and were not ageing," was the opinion of a middle-aged woman who represents a large section of society and is often congratulated on her youthful appearance. "But now we are to wear skirts of taffeta and satin that touch our ankles all the way round, and wo shall look at once as old as our mothers. "I do not see how these demure long skirts can harmonise with modern dancing, rushing about from place to place as one does, motoring/ and the gestures and make-up of the modern girl. "Women have taken a great deal of trouble to acquire slim and pretty legs, and they spend a great deal of money on smart stockings and shoes. It all this to be in vainf A Bond street dressmaker is of opinion that the long-all-round skirt, even for evening wear, will not last because young men do not like it. "Whatever young men may say in public, there is little doubt that short skirts are really the most popular for any pretty girl with attractive legs," she told a "Daily Chronicle" repi'esentative. "Tho picture frock can only bo worn successfully by a specially pretty girl, and our young customers have told us that their partners often think them affected and not sporting. "As long as young men want girls to be pals and to join in active'amusements, I do not think any long skirt can last for more than a season."