THE CHINA MAIL, FEBRUARY 24, 1937.
Even In Fashions
Broadway Tides Swirl In Piccadilly
ners.
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Now that fashion has
Industrially the American inva- sion has been many-sided. It has sometimes been credited with the introduction of mass production. Perhaps the American example has stimulated mass production in Eng- land, or it may be that British in- dustry was moving steadily of its own accord in that direction.
As to education, it might al- most be said that the American ex- ample has not been headed, or if
O the long list of American ex- exists but one whose possibilities don-and London has responded by all this would have been regarded raising three authors into the best as a grotesquely American luxury. ports there must now be add- so far have been hardly touched.
seller class. London has itself pro- ed a new item-women's fashions.
Advertising is now not so muen duced no lack of famous foreign an imitation as an importation of "American women are the best dressed women in the world," a big Thirty years ago women had correspondents, but those who have American advertising. Salesman- London store has discovered. And their clothes made by dressmakers published their memoirs have rare ship in general has been thoroughly not only discovered but proclaimed and seamstresses. It was done by ly succeeded in shaking off an op- Americanised. London's presiding in a full-page advertisement in one hand, it was very slow and most pressive sense of restraint.
genius of retail salesmanship, The foreign correspondent who Gordon Selfridge, is himself an of the biggest of London's news women never came within several
the facts," the years of what Paris laid down as is entirely free to get the news and American, and the revolution which papers. We face copywriter blared, "and the fact is the new season's fashions. That has to write it without restraint is a his methods have worked in the that America is having more and changed. The machine produc- comparatively new bird in London London stores can only be appre- more influence on fashion.”
tion of women's ready-mades is He does exist to-day and on prac- ciated by those Londoners who re- now a major industry. Taking its tically every newspaper staff ins member, the old-fashioned floor- This is news. It is the first time original designs from Paris and Fleet Street, but apparently he has walker and his imperative manner. that London has deigned to take its adapting them to the country of not found time to bring together in women's fashions from New York. manufacture, the now immense book form the story of the Euro It has exported men's fashions to ready-made industry has made it pean crises which he has reported. New York ever since the first Eng- possible for women to dress better This, in varying degrees, is what lishman walked down Fifth Avenue and at less cost than they have Sheean, Gunther and Farson have done, and the result is that London with his trousers turned up at the done before. bottoms and passers-by observed,
been has discovered a new type of autobi "It must be raining in London this brought within the reach of every ography-spiced with frequent close-- afternoon." But for women's fas- woman, its nature has changed. It ups of the great ones of Europe. hions London has always been is no longer made and unmade by Whether American magazines are faithful to Paris. Even Hollywood's the whims of individuals. The ca- any more in evidence to-day than gowns, as seen in the movies, were prices of queens no longer influence for some years past, is a difficult Some of the (and are) credited to Paris desig- it. On the contrary, modern queens question to answer,
often are remote from modern leading American periodicals have fashions. The ready-made industry considerable newstand sales in Now something has happened. has become commercially so impor- London, and there is always a gen All the big London stores tell the tant that fashion is influenced by erous display in the London clubs. same story. More Englishwomen methods of manufacture and tran- Some humorous publications are are wearing American frocks to- sport, by tariffs, currency pro- still a bit remote, perhaps, from be borne in mind that the English day than ever before. There must blems, sales campaigns, advertising elderly Englishmen who have been be tens of thousands of them, may factors of the same general na- raised on 'Punch, but younger En are not the Scots and they are not the Welsh Scots and Welsh, like be hundreds of thousands, for Lon- ture as infuence any other commo- glishmen have no difficulty in ex- Americans, are in no doubt at all don stores have been buying heavily dity with a world-wide market. tracting langhs from them. There. in New York. It has all come about Heretofore big London stores are English periodicals which are in the last twelve months, and it have been heavy buyers of ready recognizable imitations of well- has now attained proportions which mades in Berlin and Vienna. But known American magazines, and might conceivably entitle it to rank most of that trade has been switch- American newspapers have had a as a fresh American invasion of ed to New York-party because of profound influence, not always for So much for the American in- -London.
the forced emigration that German the better, on their London con- vasions which have assailed the and Austrian politics have brought temporaries.
English in their island home. To about, partly because of the depre-
leave a balanced picture, there ciated dollar. Such things govern
These cultural invasions from should of course be some mention In this respect there is ample the play of fashion to-day. What America are only a few which are of the English invasions which precedent, for London's cultural ever may be the reasons for Lon- modifying English ways. Within have assailed the United States. importations from New York have don's sudden discovery of Ameri- the last year or two London has Invasions such as these work in been both extensive and diversifi- can fashions, the results have been gained what is usually described both directions, although there can ed. A mere handful of them, re- unmistakable.
as the largest hotel in the world, be little doubt that the more power- called at random, would range from
The American" frock is the pro- with soundproof walls and a bath ful current has now set in the Mickey Mouse and Mae West to- baseball, dial telephones and in- duct of the most highly developed to every room. A dozen years ago west-to-east direction stalment buying. Americans have industry in the world. There is al- figured among the best-selling au- ways some picturesque touch about thors of the London bookshops.
it. It may be no more than a buckle. or some similar gadget "acces The newest American invasion- sory" is the technical term but that of women's fashions is typi- gives American clothes just. cal of such invasions in every res- touch of distinction which
puts pect but its suddenness. It can- them in a class by themselves. Al- not yet be said to have shaken Lon- ready the effect on the
that
don's fidelity to Paris. Upper- Englishwoman has becominary
class Englishwomen still take their fashions from Paris direct and not by way of New York.
The Englishwoman who cannot tolerate the thought of wearing a frock exactly like some other wo- man's is left untouched by Ameri can clothes,
able.
notice-
Time was when she was regard- ed as neither very well dressed nor very badly dressed, but to-day she has discovered how a clip, for example, can brighten up an every- day frock. Nowadays she has a handbag to go with every frock. The London stores She does not pay much for her, say that you can map the limits of
handbags she does not expect the fashion invasion with geogra them to outlast her frocks, any- phical exactitude. It takes in all
way. She buys them cheaply and the territory of the "ready-mades" she buys them often, and so the which New York produces by the
great cause of brighter women hundred thousand, with a variety takes a long step forward. of colour, material and fit which London has now discovered makes “American women the best dressed women in the world."
The movie invasion has, of course, been remarked upon before. Its effect may easily have been over emphasized, but it has undoubtedly This is clearly Ascot's terribeen a factory in speeding up Lon-
don's work and play, and of Bond Street
Boin tory. It is no part
a demand for plays with little world of soft music,
citement of the New York lined manikins and next seaso
d-boiled drama £100 models. It is the territory.c the average woman and her day dress, and it is worth noting
The invasion of
books that the revolution which has come Over women's fashions in the last has taken a new turn. Reporters au- thirty years has made this not only tobiographies have tapped the greatest fashion territory that of literary ore which is new to Lon-
seems
certain to înci
vein
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it has been, it has been passed over with most remarkable success. There still seem to be times when the English are in doubt, as to whether an education is of much use. In this connection it has to
that an education is worth having and will undergo almost any hard- ship to get one for themselves or their children.
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