WHAT NEXT?

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 666, 19 October 1933, Page 7

WHAT NEXT?

THE SILKEN CALF ELIMIN ATION OF MODESTY PROGRESSING EACH SEASON. - ' WHERE ARE FASHIONS LEADING? i An age when women's heauty parlours will dominate the clothinig trade, and"" when lingerie departments will he run by tattooists, was envisaged by Mr. Holbrook Jackson, of the . "Drapers' Organiser," addressing the Drapers' Summer School at Oxford (England) last month. "Women are becoming too shy to wear clothing," Mr. Jackson deelared. The process of this elimination of modesty is going on season by season." The curious thing' was that leg nudity had come into existence only since silk stockings were democratised. From his ohservation he had come to the conclusion that- legs themselves were not particnlarly beautiful, but that they were extraordina- , rily heautiful when swathed in silk stockings. Hiding the Cotton. "I ask myself," continued Mr. Jackson, "whether the short skirts craze would have come into existence if silk stockings had not been manufactured at a price attainable by the majority •of women. I think not. Before the ' silk stocking age women wore long skirts, probably to hide cotton and the ugly cotton stockings and the still uglier legs. "With the discovery of silk stockings, skirts got shorter and shorter, and with' the discovery of the cheap production of artificial silk lingeries ' garments have become fewer and fewer. "The question is whether women will revolt against even silk stockings and lingeries and whether there will be a reversion to tattooing or pure cosmetics for the human form. My own feeling is that in a very few years, with this progress, most of the lingerie departments will he run by tattooists, and cosmetics will dominate all the chief stores. Other points made by Mr. Jackson were. Th'e reason clothing is being abandoned is probably due to the emancipation of women and their entry into industry. Women cannot possiibly enter into commerce unless they become less attractive. Obeying Fashion. As they shed their garments and become less attractive, the more chance women have of becoming' efficient in business. The time is not far distant when men will be relegated to the domestie sphere and will endeavonjr to become attractive to women, who will run our businesses for us. Mr. E. Ostick, of the L.C'.C. School of Retail Distribution, expressed the view that women would continue to crave for sensation in dress, and would meekly obey fashion's! everchanging dictates, no matter whence they emanated.