DRESS REFORM

Evening Star, Issue 22454, 26 September 1936, Page 2

DRESS REFORM

TYRANNY OF THE TROUSERS “Ob for a doublet and a, swishing cloak,” sighed the poet. It is a wish that many young men have echoed. Trousers are anathema to chivalry The advent of the green male hat and the vivid male shirt, though hideous to the eye, express a certain funda mental yearning after better things (writes G. W. Harriott, in the Sydney ‘ Evening Herald ’). The garb which marks the twentieth century male human as heir'to all the ages maji be neat—even, on occasion impressive and awful. But. only, to the eyes of devotion can 'it be romantic; a,nd dashing, though a term. < applied with effect by female novelists with a nice eye for these matters, simply represents the: unattaihable. Take away your sturdy Riff ■ guerilla kuftau, kasbah, and hack,- and clothe him in the garments of enlightenment, and then 'see how ’ many squares he breaks. Or try. to. picture Richard Coeur de Lion in a bowler hat. Tho mind recoils, appalled; And rightly. If Richard had worn that horrid ensign of respectability he might indeed still have visited the Jews, but with less fanfaronnade. SHIRTS AND SLOGANS. The coloured shirts which have spread like a rash over Europe are significant. Even Garibaldi recognised the power of a shirt combined with a slogan. “We have not died on the barricades.”. Certainly not. We are not dressed for it. Those curious creatures, the dress reformers, are symptomatic of a general, if inarticulate, male revolt against the tyranny of the trousers, though, to the impartial, short pants and knobby knees must savour ot the seven devils worse than the first. But this comes of leaving a national problem to a few irresponsibles. National? It is a matter upon which the League of Nations, that august tribunal, might profitably deliberate. Among male animals the human is remarkable chiefly for the fact that in matters of personal adornment he takes a very back seat to the female of the species. This indicates either astounding arrogance or a timidity bordering on the pusillanimous; either lordly indifference or male subjection. Most young men are not indifferent; it is’ small wonder that the cry ot “ Amazon ” is heard in the land. “ I hold that gentleman to bo the best dressed whoso, dress no one observes,” says Thackeray somewhere. This is a very poor-spirited way of looking at things. And look where it has led the world! Our formal attire meet target for a cocoanut shy; our festive garb fit weeds for a funeral. 0 tempora, o mores! No wonder Mr Herrick commends a sweet disorder in the dress.