The New Elegance

U.S. women--some of them--were going to dress with rare elegance this winter. They were going to bare their shoulders, drape themselves in extravagant yards of rich cloth and go out on the town festooned with about every feminine furbelow short of a bone in the nose. The fabric restrictions, the drab colors and tailored lines of wartime were out. An opulent era of furs, jewels, lame, rustling silk and bouncing bustles, of feathers, tassels, braid and decontrolled nudity was here.

A good indication of the change in store was the New York Times's fifth annual "Fashions of the Times" show in Manhattan last week. For four days, a corps of lanky, hip-waving manikins paraded their exclusive "creations" before audiences of buyers, merchandisers, fashionwriters and prospective customers.

Afternoon dresses (longer by an inch and a half) were beaded, tucked, draped, and trimmed for "hip interest" with peplums, bustles and fantail backs. Suits were cut away to swallowtails. Shoes were closed, heel & toe, in defiance of the American woman's recent preference for open shoes.

When it came to evening dresses, U.S. designers had gone on a spree. Necklines were down to the legal limit, tops were frankly lacy. Designs ranged from elaborate peacockery to sexy sheaths of black sequins, to puffs of lace topped with sparkling rhinestones.

Prices went just about as far up as necklines went down (one exclusive Sally Milgrim evening ensemble of white & gold sold for $890). Prices of $500 for custom-made dresses were common.

But if clothes were expensive, they were also handsomer and of better quality. The uniform of the last postwar era had been the sack dress and cloche hat of the '20s. The trademarks of 1946 were elegance and variety; anything was in high fashion, so long as it had a splendid look. (One Manhattan store, with perfect justification, used a reproduction of John Singer Sargeant's 1884 Portrait of Madame X as an index to current style.) While the thrill lasted, U.S. women were going to be taken out and admired--if their husbands could find a tuxedo, that is.

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