ON THE LEVEL

Evening Star, Issue 23682, 16 September 1940, Page 6

ON THE LEVEL

WOMEN'S HEELS IN WARTIME TIMBER CONTROLLER TAKES FASHION DOWN A PEG All over the world, fashion, so far, has thriven on war and war’s innovations. Handbags shaped like gas-mask containers, brooches like regimental badges, costumes which ape the Air Force uniforms, and hats shaped like anything and everything martial—all bear witness to the fact. But the war dealt fashion an underhand blow the other day, according to reports received of the activities of the Timber Controller of the United Kingdom. This gentleman, Major A. I. Harris, discussing that branch of the control engaged in examining timber usage, and recommending economies, said that every one of 3,000 to 4,000 uses of timber were being examined for possible economies—no matter how improbable they might appear. Some 50,000 tons of wood were consumed annually in the production of women’s heels; three to three and a-half inches high. A reduction in height would save several thousand tons of cargo space, and thus, by a slight concession, could fashion make a material contribution to the war effort. As a war economy, there will be few objections raised to this—but there may be some heart-burnings, Anatole France once put the matter very bluntly: “A woman,” he said, “attracts a civilised man in proportion to tho angle her feet make with the ground. If this angle is as much as 35deg. the attraction becomes acute. For the position of the feet upon the ground determines the whole carriage of the body, and women who wear low heels are not very attractive, and preserve their virtue with ease.” The blue-stockings (apart from those still attending the universities! took tin's advice to heart in the past; other women knew it by instinct. Knowledgeable or not. women in this instance at least, will come in contact with the levelling-down processes of the war.