"A Little Bit Monsterish"

The extremes that Paris dreams up are not the bulk of what Paris turns out. But the excitement over the new 1958 fashions last week was all about the extremes: long, telescopic dresses, tubular coats, enormous, helmetlike fur hats. The styles were so odd, in fact, that the Women's News Service syndicate hired Fashion Expert Iris Hartman, sister-in-law of Dance Satirist Paul Hartman, who took one horrified look and reported: not the New Look, the Mummy Look or the Kept Woman Look, but clothes that looked toadlike. Headlined the New York Journal-American: IT'S GRUESOME LOOK FOR '58. Said Iris:

"She's all legs with a small head and nothing in between--nothing shapely that is. She has no waistline, no bosom and no hips. Let us hope that she is a nice gal inwardly because outwardly she looks a little bit monsterish. Inside these new toadlike shapeless clothes, the 1958 woman of fashion will have to be the very jewel of sweetness and grace to even seem human."

Critic Hartman listed:

P:"Tubes 'far from the body' at Madeleine de Rauch--you are supposed to guess her shape."

P:"Dior's hunchbacked look. His jackets blouse out in back where we go in. They are gathered in below the hips where we generally go out."

P:"Balmain's long, shapeless tubular evening dresses which 'engage the feet.' Also, his pure-white ermine skirt with a sweeping train--these sweeping things help, since there is a servant shortage."

P:"New high collars called 'nose-hiders'--they eliminate breathing and also talking. These will be welcomed by men who are tired of listening."

P:"Jacques Heim's fur-lined hems--ticklish, but more practical than fur garters for those who like warmth around the knees."

P:"Big. heavy fur hats--you keep these on at cocktail parties and you get hotheaded fast."

P:"Short, tight skirts--fashionable women are not supposed to walk or sit."

P: "Castillo's ensemble in fur--a bulky opossum jacket with a Davey Crockett Hat and an umbrella case in matching fur. We never used to know what to do with an umbrella case once it was peeled from the umbrella. Now we know--it can play 'possum."

Concluded Reporter Hartman: "So if the 1958 fashions bring us lovelier women inside of uglier clothes, perhaps it will be everyone's gain."

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