Fantastic Industry

THIS IS FASHION--Elizabeth Burris-Meyer--Harper ($6).

In 1939 American women spent $750,000,000 for 170,000,000 dresses, $210,000,000 for 3,000,000 fur coats, $360,000,000 for stockings, $105,000,000 for corsets and bras, $160,000,000 for 100,000,000 hats. Total: $1,585,000,000.

The coming of Dress Regulation L-85* in 1942 checked for a time the development of one of America's greatest industries. It ended a decade in which, says Author Burris-Meyer, "fashion had been static for the longest period in modern history."

Combs for Cats. Elizabeth Burris-Meyer's detailed story of dress, trimmings and furnishings runs from prehistoric Egypt to the present day. It includes its chronology and the fantastic interpretation of the great dates and shattering movements of world history as they were seen in terms of their effect on fashion. The French Revolution introduced the guillotine coiffure (hair cut short at the back of the neck). After the Revolution, men began painting their eyebrows, carrying two watches, and a comb for the hostess' cat. Charles James Fox was as brilliant in fashion as he was in Parliament. Red fox muffs, worn in his honor, became a fad. Lincoln popularized the shawl for men. The Russo-Japanese War introduced the kimono.

One of the milestones in dress design was the use of zippers by Schiaparelli (1935). Others: the habit of carrying a small mirror (Eleanor of Castile, 13th Century); the revolution in cosmetics that began with the sale of Pear's soap (1808). The greatest date in the history of modern fashion was 1846, when the lockstitch sewing machine was patented.

Before the advent of the great Houses of Worth, Paquin, Poiret, Chanel, Schiaparelli, Patou, Mainbocher, Molyneaux, Busvine, fashion was largely at the mercy of royal whims, religious edicts, the sufferings and successes of the great. The Egyptians' passion for absolute cleanliness led them to a vogue of white (they reserved black as a trimming for the lower classes only, went into saffron for mourning). Etruscan royalty were permitted seven colors, heads of families three, officers two; black sandals were for senators. Pennsylvania's Mennonites allowed red for young girls, rose for unmarried women, blue for the married, white for widows. Yellow, popular in England under James I, was discarded when the murderess Mrs. Turner was hanged in a yellow ruff.

"Stifled Sigh" Shade. The French had a vogue for incredible shades: Widow's Joy, Envenomed Monkey, Sewage, London Fog, Stifled Sigh, Fly's Backside Violet, Pale Frightened Fifi. Under Louis XVI, "the Golden Age of Vermin," the colors were topped by formal hairdos of wire, ribbons and artificial hair 72 in. high, containing handsome flea cages (they were removed when full) and scratchers of gold and ivory.

History's first diamond was worn by Zenobia of Palmyra (260 A.D.) to hold her purple wrap at the shoulder. France's 15th-Century Agnes Sorel was the first to have her diamonds cut with facets. New York's Jim Brady was the last to cover his shirt front with a mass of glittering studs--a display which "ended the popularity of [the diamond] for men until 1941." Other trends that faded slowly: petticoat breeches for men (Louis XIV), the wearing of small beards by women rulers (Egyptian), and the Elizabethan custom of eating gravel, tallow, ashes to attain the Queen's "pale, bleak color."

* L85 itself called to mind pre-Christian days when the women of Rome successfully picketed the Senate to demand the repeal of the Oppian Law--a war-emergency measure which limited female purchase of fabrics, colors and gold.

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