The Gay Uncluttered

To convention-wise Chicago, the pattern of last week's annual Spring & Summer Apparel Market and Gift Show was familiar enough. Some 4,000 buyers of women's and children's apparel and accessories, gifts, china, etc., for the nation's big & little stores crowded hotel lobbies and trooped through bedroom suites made over into salesrooms. As usual, they scrutinized the tall, leggy models and sailed into the free drinks. But times had changed; they were not really enjoying themselves.

The Government's virtual ban on convention travel (deadline, Feb. 1) made this convention the last such gathering any of the buyers would attend until the transportation crisis eases. They were already strapped for merchandise (anything they bought was as good as sold), but with few exceptions the apparel manufacturers were accepting no new customers. They were favoring the old ones only with 75% to 80% of last year's orders and talking direly of slow deliveries. Furthermore, spokesmen warned all & sundry that the apparel industry faces a possible 1945 decline of $500,000,000 in retail dollar volume. When Germany is defeated, they gloomed, consumer interest will turn from clothes, which have been relatively plentiful, to goods that will go into production when the war pinch eases.

Gift-item wholesalers, who thrive in times of famine, were the only happy men. They took orders as they came, but made no delivery promises. The quality of some of the items spoke sadly for U.S. taste, and proved again that dollars often burn hottest in unfamiliar pockets. Said one plump buyer, clutching a dismal little religious diorama made of shells and priced to retail at $6: "Aren't they awful? But they'll sell." Other bestsellers:

P: The "Kiss Plaque"--a lifesize plaster wall decoration featuring the amorous heads of a man & woman.

P: The "Love Lite"--a small boudoir lamp that exudes an aphrodisiac fragrance.

P: Ornately framed pictures of Betsy Ross and "The Stag at Bay," plus a standard array of wood-bound "Our Baby" scrapbooks, snowfall paperweights, "Million Bubble Baths" (six fragrances), etc.

By week's end, after looking eagerly at things they could not buy, and looking away from things they could not bear, the buyers were quietly desperate. But they may have drawn some comfort from the tailored calm of the attending fashion experts. Declared one woman fashion editor, who refused to be unhorsed by shortages, government, or two-ocean war:

"Uncluttered" is the word for spring. The soft feminine look, with released fullness--is important. The little-girl look of controlled sophistication--is important. The most exciting new color combinations are light spruce green and tender pink, and yellow with ethereal blue. Of course, red, white & blue will also be worn.

And, in some instances, olive drab.

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