MERE MEN’S CLOTHING

Shannon News, 6 December 1929, Page 3

MERE MEN’S CLOTHING

Advocates of Reform Advise “Tub” Garments DISSENT FROM TAILORS Professor Leonard Hill, director of the Department of Applied physiology of the National Institute for Medical Research, in his* presidential address at the annual conference of the Sanitary Inspectors’ Association, put the case for dress reform. It would bo a valuable reform, said Professor Hill, if men took to wearing washable outer garments, and lauiidiy men might well set out to provoke this fashion. Women had reduced their clothing, all washable, to a weight of two or three pounds, while man continued to overclothe himself with three or ro-ur times this weight. The reform most needed at the moment, the professor remarked, was the open neck. The loose trouser vas convenient alnd comfortable for this climate, and underclothing could and should be lightened. The world would not easily accept the view that the Prime Minister and his Cabinet, the leaders of the professions and captains of business should be dressed as Boy Scouts, but it could be persuaded to ■adopt the fashion of the open neck. In hot weather custom should not restrict the taking off of coats in places of business and entertainment. Diet and Vitamines. Speaking on diet and vitamines, Professor Hill said that it was now known that the vitamin lobolled E was necessary for brooding. It was curious to (hiilk that mankind by adding or withholding this could raise children, son* as sterile, workers, others as breeders, as the bees did. While general recognition of what made an adequate diet would have great effect on the future health of the nation, it was necessary that abstinence should be taught. There was much over-eating and drinking. The cock-tail habit was not a good one. It had been proved conclusively by exact research that alcohol in small doses, especially when taken on an empty stomach diminished skill and lessened, efficiencv. Alcohol was thought to exhilarate- it really lessened control and so’loosened the tongue. For motor drivers' and air-pilots alcohol was therefore dangerous, while useful for .after-din-ner speakers and those who wanted to forget troubles. Like the “Quack Doctor.”

Dress reformers came in for severe condemnation at the National Federation of Merchant Tailors at Exter. Mr Stanley Johnson, London, moved that the federation, “as the custodian of good taste and style in real tailoring, urges the-young man with his way to make in the world to bo particular and precise in the matter of suitable dress on.all occasions.” “In the ' medical world,” said Mr Johnson, “there is a person known as the quack doctor, I think wc can liken him to the present dav dress reformers. They are dress quacks, and they suggest that shorts and open neck shirts will do for all occasions.

“Dr. Aid red C. Jordan, a member of the council of the New Health Society, is reported to have said: Employers must accept the change; they should rive a lead by adopting decent hygienic clothes themselves. ; The doctor evi dently meant shorts and open neck shirts. This good- man must be talking with his tongue in his cheek, otherwise he would try to induce Mr Gordon Selfridge or Sir Sidney Skinner, to •iromennde up and. down their stores wearing shorts, as an example to their employees. Dr. Jordafi should also set an example himself, and call on hi? patients in this ridiculous garb, instead of in the dignified garb usually worn by doctors.

“Dean Inge —that apostle of humour—says trousers might be abolished in favour of shorts. But this reforming dn?.n sticks' to gloomy breeches, covers his calves with gaiters, and so virtually declares, ‘Do as I sav, and not as I do.’ And for a very good reason —for it is beyond imagination to picture the dean in St. Paul’s pulpit makingNa profound impression in. bare legs.’’ (Laughter.)