A Bravo for Lucky

Occasionally the lissome ladies who make their living modeling the latest French fashions manage to borrow a dress from their employers for an evening of lend-lease delight at Maxim's. But for the most part, the Paris mannequin's career is one of exhausting routine, small compensation and worry over the future.

To better the lot of her sisters in satin, two years ago Lucie Daouphars, an almond-eyed part-time Dior mannequin who calls herself Lucky ("It pronounces Looky, as in Looky Strike"), organized L'Association Mutuelle des Mannequins de France. For dues of $7 a year, the association undertook to provide its members with free legal aid, a form of unemployment insurance, medical aid (even in cases of unwed motherhood), and the services of a plastic surgeon. "A bosom of growing importance," sighs Lucky, "is often a cause of unemployment."* Best of all, the association provided its girls with a place to sit and chat and receive professional phone calls.

Unfortunately for Lucky, there was a law against employment agencies. A government agent found out about Lucky's headquarters, and filed charges against Lucky for maintaining an illegal employment agency.

Last week, clad in a tasteful Dior black wool suit with blue stole, Mannequin Lucky led a protesting detachment of 150 models into Paris' famed Palais de Justice. "This tribunal," said Presiding Magistrate Marcian Dumont, when evidence was all in, "approves of your fine work and says 'bravo.' " Nevertheless, Lucky had broken the law and must pay "a penalty of principle." Somberly the judge pronounced sentence: a fine of 60-c-. Borne from the courtroom in triumph on the shoulders of heftier companions, Lucky promised to win from the government formal permission to continue her Association Mutuelle.

* For news of higher fashion, see BUSINESS.

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