Fashions in the East and West

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5323, 8 February 1947, Page 3

Fashions in the East and West

Speaking in "Radio Roundahout" in the B.B.C.'s Eastern Service recently, Mr. James Laver, oue of the greatest living authorities on the history of fashibn, discussed with Mrs. Rekha Menon the reasons why he consi.lered fashion had constantly changed in the West and had stood still in the East. Fashion as a ehanging mode of dress for women started no earlier than the 13th century in ihe courts of Burgundy as a m ea ha of compatition between the ladies of the court to gain ihe patrc.nage oi* the King and, therefore, to hring themselves into a position of some power. He believecl that in a society in which women are quite hhhlen away there is no opporttnity j and no need for fashions to develop. | Mrs. Menon agieed that at that 'time i iiicre was practically no alteration in Indian fashions of dress for women, and chaiiqe sucli as there had been was one oi* decoration rathor than line. Fasliion did, of cour.se, in the . East as in the West, serve to show olf tne ! nositioii of a woman's husband by the j wcalth of the decoration and the lineI ness of liiaterial. | -In Mr. Laver s opinion, women have ! sabi gf.od-byo to gorgeous clothes, j and they are now settling down to a i more utilitarian sort of fashion. It i is obviously much easier to board a j bus in modeni skirts than in a crinoline. Mrs. Menon said that in India ctility is very impoitant, not only amongst the peasant conimunity but also in the higher classes where women wil wear only one piece of clot'n, but the thiekness, colour and material will be according to their needs. On the question of ciiildren's clothes, Mr. Laver explained that the history of fashions for children was quite a short one, only about 200 years old. Kcfore that time — before Joan Jaciiues R&rsseau — children liad been ! d: cssO'i as small replicas of their elders — coiuplete with sword and povvleretl wig. That was very niuch ihe case in india to-day, according to Mrs. i Menon. A few children, the more westI ernised, had taken to western clothes, j but for the rest, they were small editions of their parents.