"Not Tonight"

The U.S. fashion business went Good Neighborly last week. Sponsored by the wife of Mexico's Foreign Minister Ezequiel Padilla, a benefit style show and sale opened in Mexico City. From Dallas came a special plane bearing dresses, shoes, hats, Clothier H. Stanley Marcus and twelve luscious models. All were installed in Mexico City's gaudy Reforma Hotel.

First the models gave a private showing to Senora de Avila Camacho, wife of Mexico's President. Then the doors were thrown open to the public. Dresses were priced from $50 to $350, hats from $40. Well-tailored women swooped on the Reforma like seagulls on a herring run. Following the model parade, there was a wild rush to the display room. After three hours of plucking, fitting and haggling, more than one-third of the 15,000 pounds of stock had been sold.

The models were also overwhelmed by Good Neighborly males. The Government took them on a tour of the city. And somewhere--between the hotel, the bullfight, the races, the floating gardens of Xochimilco--all the girls received marriage proposals. All refused.

By week's end the much-mauled mannequins had made a rallying cry of the title of one of the dress designs: Esta noche no (Not tonight).

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