MIRROR OF FASHION

New Zealand Listener, Volume 32, Issue 822, 29 April 1955, Page 13

MIRROR OF FASHION

ALWAYS IN VOGUE, by Edna Woolman Chase and Ilka Chase; Victor Gollancz English price 21/-. [oGue was first published in 1892 as a "dignified, authentic journal of society, fashion and the ceremonial] side of life.’ It was loaded with what are now antiquated. snobberies, childish jokes and Hints on how to Treat Servants ("One should always be kind to them, but .. ."). Today's glossy art cover and swanlike, languishing ladies represent the world’s leading fashion journal. Vogue's’ transition kept pace with the substitution of the horseless

carriage for the streamlined limousine, the eruption of two wars, a complete revolution on socia] attitudes, the disappearance of the little dressmaker and the establishment of the salons of the haute couture. Edna Woolman Chase joined ‘the Vogue staff in 1895, but she is not wholly successful when putting her story into print. She must have had unusual qualities of toughness and drive, but little of this is evident. Instead one gets the impression of a whimsical character much addicted to the pun. Mrs. Chase was familiar with men and women known to us as people of special talents, but they flit through the pages like ghosts, aggravating us by their very evanescence. She is not given to analysis and dces not realise that the adjectival clause is insufficient to bring a personality to life. There is a general refusal to add any acid to the formula which results at times in a fine display of fence-sitting, Even the battle with William. Randolph Hearst. who started Harper’s Bazaar in opposition to Vogue, and who bribed many of its most gifted satellites to desert to his banner, is treated so gently that the understandable undercurrent of resentment is hardly realised before it is passed over. The vagaries of dress through the ages has fascinated more than one student. James Laver, for instance, writes with wit and satire from an historical-psycholo-gical viewpoint which gives the story meaning and adds to the sum of human behaviour, It is a pity Mrs Chase could not approach her subject with a little of this outlook. As it is, I found the book pleasant chit-chattery reading more or less in the gossip column tradition. As a record and a reference it could be useful, but as a picture of life and times just behind us it is unimportant. A good job of camera work. say, instead of an interpretive work of art.

Isobel

Andrews