i
Battalion
PUBLISHED DAILY IN THE INTEREST OF A GREATER A&M COLLEGE
COLLEGE STATION, (Aggieland) TEXAS, THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 1954
Page 9
Spring Fashion Forecast
Cotton Steps Into Spring
For Use in All Fashions
Since fashions this spring have taken the thermometer+
as their guide, cotton steps more strongly into style than ever I
before.
Cotton is no longer the exception or the unusual in a cold-
weather wardrobe.
Meant for spring—for early, «hilly spring—are cotton :
suits and ensembles with all the styling and cut of woolen j
garments. +
DRESSED AND READY—are Mrs. Mike Mistovich and
Miss Dorothy Collier. Mrs. Mistovich wears a “Carlye”
black cotton trimmed in velvet and lace with a tight-fit
ting tucked bodice. Miss Collier’s dress is of navy silk
trimmed with rinestone centered raisies. It is designed
by “Emma Domb”. Collegiate shop.
Dig Out Your Petticoats;
They 're Back In Style
Petticoats, which “went out” of j
style last year with a swish heard [
’round the world, are back with a
tentative rustle.
Most New York designers still
stick to a basically slim line for
next season. But there are several
full-skirt fanciers notably Jerry
Parnis and Hannah Troy who
Went all out again, around the hips.
Jerry (the designer who took
Tottons out of the house dress cat-
rgory 15 years ago) shows practic
ally no slender shirts in his sum
mer preview. Instead, there are
Voluminous cottons held out not on
ly by layers of petticoats but
also by a new, netty under-lining
called “Pormite.”
They are even more gracefully
belled-out than they were in 1952
when petticoat fever was disturb
ingly high.
Miss Troy is not quite so starchy
in skirts. But the “feeling” in her
collection is decidedly away from
the slim ‘n’ corseted look.
She even shows a revival of the
gather-skirted suit—with its jack
et peplum puffing curvaceously ov
er the hip fullness in the skirt.
Cotton is no longer a la
carte; it’s on the regular fash
ion menu. It needn’t be spec
ially ordered or searched for—
try and miss it. Suits, coats,
sportswear, evening gowns — the
spring silhouette can be worn in
cotton.
More Cotton for Spring
A dele Simpson, the * designer
who’s done much to pull cotton
away from the washboard and into
style, says she has used more cot
ton in her spring collection this
year than ever before — and she’s
always used a lot.
She’s designed cotton suits, cot
ton costumes and cotton dresses to
wear right now and next summer,
too.
These new styles do not resemble
the house dress—but then, neither
does the new cotton. It’s glossed
and shined, woven and polished,
and comes in weights and weaves
which look like linen, wool or rich,
silken fabrics.
Used In Suits, Too
Suit manufacturers here, who
until recently didn’t know what the
word “cotton” meant, now know
very well the meaning of cotton.
Last spring saw one or two cot
ton suits in a collection. This
spring many suit manufacturers
have as many as ten cotton styles
for buyers to choose from.
And each suit has been given
the same close attention, the same
detailing and expert fitting of top
quality woolen suits. The price,
too, has risen to the occasion.
This year’s Maid of Cotton, 20
year-bid Beverly Pack of El Paso,
has been in New York for the last
several weeks accumulating a cot
ton wardrobe that can travel here
or abroad.
Miss Pack has a wardrobe of
cotton costumes which have been
selected from the collections of for
ty-four outstanding American de
signers. She will tour the United
States and Canada. She arrived in
Houston Tuesday.
And whether she’s in Miami,
Dallas, Chicago or Montreal, she
(See COTTON, Page 13)
Young Look
Favored By
Dallas Houses
A younger, prettier
ages is evidenced in
LOOKING FOR TRENDS—
in a fashion magazine is
Mrs. C. H. Groneman, wear
ing a black and white check
ed by “Paul Sachs” with a
red scarf at the neck. She
carries out the red theme
with a perky red straw hat
trimmed in red velvet.
Fashion shop.
Dallas,
look for all
summer collections of Dallas’ fore
most fashion houses now being
shown to 50 fashion editors, rep
resenting the nation’s foremost
newspapers. Miss Marjorie Par
son, Chronicle women’s editor, is
attending the showing which lasts
through Wednesday.
Dallas designers have turned to
men’s and boys’ shirts as a sou i ce
of inspiration for summer dresses
that are young and at the same
time have the casual simplicity
for which this market is known.
Some shii't dresses are cut as a
chemise and depend entirely upon
belts to define the waistline; oth
ers have trouser darts to give a
suggestion of a peg top to the
skirt.
Interest In Collars
Collar treatments, however, are
the important point of interest.
They are fused to permanently
hold their stiffness and attached
to a band as on a man’s shirt. A
few are detachable, many are con
vertible, and one buttons so high
under the chin that it is known
as the “stove pipe” collar.
Sheers are used to biang about
that picture of sweetness desired
by all women with plans for the
twilight hour and later. Cottons
again predominate. There are pas
tel voiles in colors as appetizing
as an ice cream cone. One dress in
an evening mood has an extremely
full skirt made from panels
different shades of blue and green,
each panel in a different shade.
Paris Designers Show
New Ideas for Spring
Elsa Schiaparelli
fash-
cue to
SUITED FOR SPRING—are Mrs. John Mackin, Mrs. John A. Way, and Mrs. Charles
Parrish. Mrs. Mackin wears a grey wool middy style suit by “Jaunty Junior” trim
med with white pique. Her “Avalon” hat is of French imported braided straw. Mrs.
Way shows is the glazed cotton lining of her silk shantung suit by “Lorch”. Her bon
net shaped hat is is of black milan straw. Mrs. Parrish wears a navy wool suit by
“Etta Gaines” with braid trim o nthe collar and pockets. Her white mialn straw pil-
box hat is trimmed with blue velvet. WSD. Hats from Mrs. Greene Buchanan’s hat
shop,
Most people interested i
ion look to Paris for their
fashion.
Following is a round-up of Paris
designers and their collections for
the spring and summer season.
Christian Dior
Wasp Waists, cinched with belts,
are back in style by courtesy of
Christian Dior. In his “Lily of the
Valley” line he boasted that “the
waistline has never looked smaller,
or been less strangled.”
To nobody’s surprise, he kept
hemlines right where he put them
with last season’s revolution, and
presumably cut another notch in
record of style battles won.
The secret of the wee but un
strangled waist was soon as clear
as day: Dior does it by blousing
the bodice and the skirt, and caving
in the waistline.
It’s the same old story: While
other houses take up his princess
line and work it to death, Dior
has moved on to other things.
Next to Paris blue—an intense
blue-blue — and a profusion o
( white, purple in shades ranging
. , from petunia to lilac was almost
f | his favorite color.
Lunch-to-dinner suits are Dior’s
new secret weapon. They permit
a woman a three-stage striptease,
by the clock. Jackets come off in
the early evening, and for dinner a
big sailor collar is removed to un
cover the shoulders.
Dior does three kinds of skirts:
Very slender, straight ones, full
ones, and pleated ones.
His necklines are wider than they
are deep, but for variation there
are some rounded-out keyholes.
Sleeves generally stop at the el
bow.
The style dictator this time
claims that he is “imposing noth
ing on women except what is sug
gested by her own coquetterie.”
At last, somebody offers a sub
stitute for those stoles that have
been cluttering up evening dresses
for ages. Dior’s new idea is a big
chiffon scarf draped like a toga,
and fastened on one shoulder with
u jewel or flower.
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TWICE AS LOVELY—is Mrs. Ed. Brush in a “Jackie
Nimble” suit woven of navy silk wool. The suit, accented
by a white linen collar, comes in junior sizes. The white
straw hat is trimmed with a white veil and sprinkled with
rhinestones. Collegiate shop.
‘Slipcovers’ Go on Dresses
In New York Collections
A one-woman rebellion against
the new fashion trends was staged
by Madame Elsa Schiaparelli.
Keeping her skirts way down to
mid-calf, she decreed “no belts, no
buttons, no boning” in a shoi't skirt
season rife with buttons, boning
and belts.
Likewise, says stubborn Chiap,
no zippers and no hooks.
How then, are you going to get
in and out of the new Schiaparelli
creation which she has named
“Abacadabra ? ”
Well, she invokes mystery and
magicians, but tbe plain fact is
that she uses a drawstring or
elastic band in the back of the skirt
waistline.
With a sort of perverse pride,
she avoids buttons like poison in
places where they are really need
ed and goes to all sorts of trouble
doing it, only to plunk them on
blouses where they’re not really
useful at, all.
e |
l HubertdeGivenchy
Fashion Designer Hubert de Giv
enchy is in favor of happiness and
good luck, and who can quarrel
with that?
His new spring clothes, beside
being sprinkled with lucky em
blems are so fresh and pretty that
the women who wear them should
be happy indeed.
A nippy waisted, fluffy skirted
silhouette shared honors with a
slim sheathed one at the Divenchy
j collection.
The theme of happiness and good
; luck was carried out with four-
j leaf clovers, wheat, fish, lily of
the valley and totaises—all em
blems sacred to Lady Luck in var-
: ions countries.'
The designer described his line
i a “young, effervescent, and cares-
j sing the body.” He gave his ere-
; ations such names as “Kiss Me”—
i for a lipstick red suit with loose-
i waisted middy top—and “Sweetie”
I —for a gala-skirted strapless for-
i (See DESIGNERS, Page 14^
New York.—It’s downright dif- +
ficult to find a dress that doesn’t
have its own “slip cover” this
spring. Sometimes it’s a jacket
dress. It looks like a suit, but
when you remove the jacket, there
is a full dress underneath.
More often, howevex - , it will have
a matching bolero, or a fxxll-lexxgth
coat which x'epeats the dress’s print
or color either in its outer suxface,
or in its lining. Posh di'essmak-
ers lump these di'csses-with-cover-
ups under the all-inclusive, if
vagxxe, term of costume, ensemble,
or both.
Since the fashion is now to be
found in mox - e down-to-earth price
xanges, the term costume and/or
ensemble seems much too impos
ing. The word “slip covex” seems
more fitting, for the dictionary
defines it as “a removable cover,”
which certainly describes what I’m
talking about.
In itself, it is of course not a
new fashion. But it’s sudden pre
valence is. And it owes its vogue
to two current silhouette factors
that are both favorable to a vax - -
iety of slip covers: The temporary
(px-aise be) absence of belts, which
removes any suggestion of bunchi-
ness through the middle; and the
(also temporary) prevalence of
slim skills, for they strike xx har
monious optical balance with a
jacket no matter at what level it
ends, and are often visually im
proved by the contrast of the rela
tive bulk ox - width at the top.
IN TEEN SIZES —is this
two-piece cotton worn by
Sally Miller, daughter of
Mr .and Mrs. Henry A. Mil
ler. The biege top and grey
skirt are set off by red trim.
By “Cot-n-tween.” Teen-Tot
shop.
^ t HE LINE—is featured in this dress worn by
+ 1 a" u a « a ^' s a grey silk and wool wor-
r. rr U v with plaid taffeta trim, and plaid
all eta lining in the jacket. She wears a matching grey
straw hat. Lester’ smart shop.