Fillip

When the Normandie safely slipped into her French Line pier in Manhattan this week, aboard (among other anxious travelers) were Sonja Henie, Mrs. William Randolph Hearst, Lee Shubert, Thomas J. Watson and a small gadget. Frivolous in its grim setting, it was nonetheless welcomed in Manhattan swankshops. It was a corset.

The thing was first presented by the severe salon of Mainbocher on Paris' Avenue George V month ago, gave women the wasp-waisted effect designers favor, became the sensation of the Paris showings. A streamlined adaptation of the ancient corset, cut out on the sides, it was so stiffly boned that it made mannequins creak. But Lord & Taylor assured apprehensive women: "You don't have to worry!" Mainbocher's price: $40. A duplicate could be bought in Manhattan last week for $15.

Couturier Mainbocher started neither the corset nor the idea of reviving it this year, but his sponsorship was the fillip the trend needed. Mainbocher is a slim, blond, fluty young man who used to play the piano for Cobina Wright, graduated to the editorship of Paris Vogue. He opened his salon ten years ago with the backing of Mrs. Gilbert ("Kitty") Miller (daughter of Financier Jules S. Bache), Lady Mendl (the former Elsie de Wolfe and the Comtesse de Valombrosa), reached an ecstatic crescendo of popularity and envy when he beat Mme Elsa Schiaparelli and other dressmakers to the job of making Wallis Simpson's trousseau. M. Mainbocher's corset fillip, no matter what else could be said for it. was another affirmation that the world still looked to Paris for a way to live, even as it was looking elsewhere for a way to die.

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