In the Stretch

In Washington 70 fantastic hats assembled in WPB's huge board room. Under the hats sat the leading ladies of the fashion press, from Carmel Snow of Harper's Bazaar to Ladies' Home Journal's Wilhela Cushman. The women's editors had been specially summoned from New York, Boston and Philadelphia by the chief of WPB's clothing section, astute Merchant Harold Stanley Marcus, executive vice president of Dallas, Tex.'s famed Neiman-Marcus store, to hear what the Government wanted done about women's & children's clothes.

Clothes Boss Marcus needed their help badly. His job is to stretch civilian clothing as far as it will go-- if possible, without resorting to rationing, which is complicated and expensive. He had a plan --but for the plan to be successful, U.S. women, whose purses bulge with purchasing power, must spend as little as possible on new clothes.

To make U.S. women wear old clothes, Marcus wanted fashion authorities to tell them that 1942 models would be no more fashionable than 1941's. And in order to prevent a rush of panic hoarding--the victory-suit flurry had sent men's clothing sales up 300% in some cities--Marcus wanted all U.S. fashion editors and radio commentators to reassure women that stores would carry reasonable supplies of attractive clothes.

First, to prevent radical fashion changes, Clothier Marcus "froze" the current silhouette. Then he eliminated extraneous frills: voluminous skirts, deep hems, full sleeves, wide belts. Third move was to ar range that coats and suits, jackets and dresses be sold separately, to make them go further. These changes should save 100,000,000 yards of cloth.

To spread his propaganda, Marcus had wangled advance cooperation from the National Retail Dry Goods Association. Fortnight ago merchant members in 250 cities met with local press and radio editors, asked them please, when the ruling came out, for once not to treat women's fashions as merely funny. The Association then supplied radio stations and newspapers with reassuring fashion advice from leading U.S. clothes designers: Sophie Gimbel, Clare Potter, Nettie Rosenstein and others.

Then, to back up the designers, leading U.S. women were asked to make reassuring statements. Said Adela Rogers St. Johns: "The overdressed woman will be as unpatriotically conspicuous as though she wore a Japanese kimono." Cracked Irvin S. Cobb's daughter Elisabeth: "I'll cheerfully lose my skirt to keep our liberty."

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