CLASS DISTINCTION IN CLOTHES

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 904, 22 February 1930, Page 26

CLASS DISTINCTION IN CLOTHES

WOMEN OF MODERATE INCOME SHOULD AVOID SPECIALISED COSTUMES

I It is no longer the ambition of | the good dressmaker to turn out her i wealthiest clients looking as much I like their maids as possible, and the 1 little dress that did for anybody, at j any time, in any place, has dis- ! appeared. Class distinctions in clothes j j are being reasserted, and this for the j very logical reason that people with | money no longer live like those with j no money, nor do they pretend to. Hence so many divisions and subdivisions in the present mode. Life is varied, amusing, active, but also elegant, exigent and expensive. SPECIALISED CLOTHES There has hardly been a time within the memory of this generation when clothes have been so discriminately made to suit every occasion that the wearer Is likely to meet. If the costume fits the time —wear it. There are clothes for early morning, clothes for shopping, clothes for every type of luncheon party, the early afternoon or sitabout dress, the dress for receiving at home in the afternoon, and the dress for going out to tea, with its special coat; a cocktail-time dress, a little dinner-dress, the grand dinner-dress, the theatre-going dress, all with their special coats; the quiet evening dress, the dance dress, the ball dress, and the full regal grand evening dress, all with their special wraps. Apart from all these, which may represent the average chic and wealthy woman’s day In town, there are also the various complete and distinct sports outdoor and country | costumes, and the sports, the day, and | the evening fur coat. FOR THE LESS WEALTHY This embarrassment of choice very naturally creates a greater number of dress problems for the less wealthy woman than ever before. But she has only to avoid the specialised costumes to be as well-dressed' as she ever has been. She may not be able to indulge in the short fur coat of this new season, nor in the long trained evening dress, which, unsuitable for anjl save formal private occasions, is of a luxury that would forbid her to have also those evening dresses that serve more frequent occasions. Moderate incomes must mean moderate tastes. Any too definite garment introduced Into the simple wardrobe becomes a give-away and a bore before one has had one’s money’s worth, and the variety of the new clothes, in itself spelling complete correctness for each occasion, rather than eccentricity for any one occasion, to the woman that can afford them all, suggests more than ever that the standard for good dressing on any bank balance is discriminating taste.