THE AGE OF UNDRESS.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 August 1920, Page 6

THE AGE OF UNDRESS.

FLIMSY FROCKS AT ASCOT. COST £5 AN OUNCE. A lady correspondent writes:—Your article lasj; week about what we Taran&ki women are going to wear next summer, and how much clothes are going to cost, was full of interest. The same day 1 read something about womenV; clothes in England, and to read about glorious Ascot—if you've evdr been there you'll know why it is described as glorious—was full of thrills. This is what a writer in the Daily Mail says: "But Ascot itself was wonderful, Moreover, : i. was favored for the most part with wonderful weather. As a fashion spectacle this year's meeting has never been rivalled for color. Never has such a variety of gorgeous hues been seen on the famous course. It was more like a super-theatrical production than a social event. La;;e was a prominent feature of most of the costumes, but, to be quite frank about the matter, there was not really very much of anything in the way of material in most of them. One enterprising newspaper had a number of striking costumes put on the scale, and some of them were found to weigh as little as eight and ten ounces. Most of the gowns worn were of very abbreviated length, and mar.y of them were sleeveless. Comparing weight and cost, it seems that the average cost of an Ascot frock came out at somewhere about £5 an ounce. My women readers will be interested to learn that a ( really smart hat .to-day costs almost as much as quite a smart little frock used to cost a few years ago. "The diaphanous fashion in frocks, together wi'th the 'short skirt, no sleeves, and (in evening gowns) bare-back effects, is attracting the attention of some of our more earnest students of social tendencies, who affect to find in these manifestations a certain amount of cause for alarm. Woman, we are told, is losing her modeßty and abandoning all reserve in a determination not to be 'left on the shelf in a generation whose males of marriageable age have been so largely killed off by war. Indeed, something to this effect was said the other day by the Archbishop of Melbourne, who is gravely disturbed by the changes he notices in England on hi 3 return after *n absence of several years."