A Man Among The Mannequins.

Hokitika Guardian, 21 June 1921, Page 3

A Man Among The Mannequins.

3 J (By “Lutetia.”) 5 j PARIS. J | Some things stir one’s very deepest L | sympathies, such as Kings, for exI j ample, or starving animals, or dead ) j flowers. But I reserve by profoundest ! pity for a male at an exhibition of new ! fashions at the dressmakers’. ) I saw one such, the other day; he • seemed so grotesquely out of place, and I he knew it. I cannot imagine a woman , being so completely out of any picture ; but if she were, I am sure she would neither know nor show it. We were attending one of these exciting afternoons in Paris last week; Florence and 1 sat huddled together on a single chair, so great was the throng |of visitors. There was just room for the “mannequins” to pace down the central aisle, which was kept free for the purpose. At a given moment, between the numbers as it were, the Man appeared; very smartly dressed, very modest, and escorting a, charming lady. He was the sort of man who could have held bis own in a Royal Enclosure, on the Stock Exchange, in church—in fact, anywhere except here. But when lie got into this roont, with its shaded lights and soft music, and mixed scents, and when the doors were closed behind him—poor thing, I felt sorry! He poked hunted and harrassed, like some animal caught in a trap. His fair companion passed leisurely down the fairway to a chair in the window ; he seemed to scuttle behind her, looking neither right nor left, in search of a holt-hole. lie collapsed into a sent at her side, and, while she was quite at home, nodding to friends and smiling at acquaintances, he was preoccupied in finding quarters for his hat and stick and legs. ***** I watched the man as the models sailed, strutted, or sidled past him. His instinct was to admire their faces rather than their frocks—but a proper instinct told him this would never do. So lie settled down to studying this new thing as a new science which it was important for him to understand. Darker and darker grew the clouds Of puzzlement upon his brow as he appeared to analyse the difference between the various styles for morning, afternoon, and evening; the dresses lor walking or -golfing, for racing or receptions, for luncheon or visiting or afternoon tea, for bridge parties and tor balls. Every now itnd thetl lie marked his catalogue; it was always when a very simple dress of a single colour with close-fitting lin»s swept past him. These, I am sure, are the clothes which please men most—at any rate off the stage. They are terribly conseivative in the matter of dress for themselves; indeed, it is almost a century since they have modified their own costumes, so perhaps that is why they silently wish that we would not change our fashions so rapidly and give them just one chance of getting accustomed to something, or anything, that We wear. And sometimes 1 wonder, when J look at my hank pass-book, whether there is not a yood deal to be said for this point of view. I met the man afterwards, when the show was over, and asked him what he thought about it all. He replied that “going over the top” was infinitely less terrifying than going into that room ; and as for clothes, he supposed they were all right for French ladies, but lie preferred a blue serge coat and skirt for the daytime and a plain,“clinging” dress for the evening. No argument could dislodge him from this position, which lie held with eloquent tenacity. And to think how much of our time, and of their money, we spend in decking ourselves out “to please them”!