CORSETS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 January 1940, Page 8

CORSETS

FASHION CONTROVERSY. The burning fashion controversy of the moment centres around corsets. Paris, which has revived the oldtime short coutil whaleboned, backlace “instruments of torture,” says the hour-glass figure is the thing, and that definitely means corsets. But will American women sacrifice the comfort provided for them in the miracles of modern corsetry? That is the question. American corset manufacturers in the last decade have evolved formulas for control which perform wonders for women’s figures. Their cleverness has long ago done away with the necessity of wearing the old-fashioned “armour plate.” Marlene Dietrich starring in “Destry Rides Again.” is one whose opinions on fashion trends should carry a great deal of weight. She has done more than any other Hollywood screen star to influence fashions, with her uncanny flair for wearing the unusual and making it popular. She was the first woman to wear slacks in public. It was front page news. Hundreds of photographs showing Miss Dietrich in her new and daring trouser ojitfit appeared in the newspapers of the country. Almost overnight the popularity of women's slacks grew to such proportions that manufacturers could not supply the demand. Today, live or six years later, no woman's wardrobe is complete without al least one slack suit. And now comes the resuscitation of that long-dead undergarment—the ironclad corset.

Miss Dietrich, approached for her personal and very interesting viewpoint on the chances of its muscling into the American fashion picture, had this to say:

"I do not believe corsets can come back for American women, who are accustomed to comfort in their clothes. They will not submit to the discomfort of the old-fashioned harnessing, simply because Paris says they must.

“French women, whose clothes are cut differently from those which American women wear, are used to discomfort. They may be willing to wear stiffly-boned and laced corsets. But not American women! Their naturally beautiful figures do not require such rigid control."