LONDON SETS THE LEAD IN LATEST FASHION STYLES FOR MEN

Taupo Times, Volume I, Issue 18, 14 May 1952, Page 2

LONDON SETS THE LEAD IN LATEST FASHION STYLES FOR MEN

There are signs that men's fashion in London is turning away from thes ultra neat worsted suitings — plain pinheads, hirdseye, pick-and-pick ' and diagonals — to something a little more fancy in design. The trend is towards stripes again, by way of stripe effects in the weave of the cloth, as a preliminary to the reappearance in fashion of fancy coloured stripe "decorations." A few are being introduced, in a modest way, already, effected by clever combination of two, and sometimes more, of the standard weaves in the same cloth — birdseye stripe on a pick-and-pick ground, for example — or by breaking the plain diagonal rib into long and short tick qffects or working these or pick-and-pick into fancy herringbone formation. It looks, too, as if blue is coming into the lead again, as a town suiting colour, after a long run on greys and blue-greys. In town shirtings, the fashion is still for the neatest of patterns. Thisi means the plain, white and colour, weave known as end-and-end, fine hairlines and the slightly bolder, closely placed(, ^*Beng;ai>,, stripes, on vlhite grounds. As achange from these well-tried settings, some London shirt-makers are trying to popularise very small, coloured, line check patterns — again on white ground — in silk and fine poplin. Although production is limited, these are expected to go well In spite of the growth of the col-lar-attached style in day shirts, London still has a strong liking for the tunic variety, with a separate collar and square double cuffs, for business ' and semi-formal occasions. Tfhe most popular collar shape is short pointed, with points set at only a moderate angle and with allowance for a medium size of tie-knot. Usually, the collai matches the shirt and is semi-stiffened, but the starched or semi-stiff white collar is regarded as permissable with a very neatly patterned, white ground, shirt. Attached collar styles tend to be bolder — longer in the point, more widely spaced, or cutaway, to take a large tie-knot.