World Fashions

... After spending seven years in the United States, where her husband, Dr. Karim Azkoul, was Lebanon's permanent delegate to the United Nations, Mrs. Eva Khoury Azkoul returned to Beirut, and we caught in her satchel sweet fragrances of what she had seen and heard in America of the news of the Lebanese there.

Mrs. Azkoul was kind enough to promise to bring the readers of "The

Woman's Voice" the choicest of what is there: where has the Lebanese excelled, and where has he shone? And who knew that he had excelled even in the creation of fashions?

Let us listen to her here, telling us about the Maalouf family...

When I was asked to speak of

what caught my attention and made an impression on me during the many years I spent in the United States, I felt it my duty to speak first of the manifestations of the splendid Lebanese activity in that country. I did not think, however, of taking up the various sides of this activity, for that

would take many long articles, and it also exceeds the range of my limited experience and knowledge. In every field of practical life in the lands of the Mahjar there is a clear mark of the Lebanese's capacity, excellence, and self-made success, one that commands attention and deserves to be made known. I shall therefore confine this word of mine now to one particular side that struck me especially, as a woman, and drew my attention, so that I was moved to take an interest in it and to become acquainted with it: the contribution of the Lebanese to the art of women's fashions and their dazzling success in this field.

What encourages me to speak of this subject is the perfection of taste I have observed in the Lebanese woman since my return to Lebanon. Alongside the openness of her mind to culture and learning, her ideal quality as mother and housewife, her success in keeping pace with modern social life, and her interest in political and literary affairs, she is also conspicuously adorned with mastery, skill, and artistry in dress and adornment, and I can say that she perhaps at times surpasses the Western woman in this arena. For this reason I believe she will be pleased to learn that companions of hers, daughters of her own sex and homeland, have excelled in the creation, making, and production of women's fashions in a city considered today the largest and most splendid city in the world and one of the most important centers of fashion among the great capitals — I mean the city of New York.

I shall single out for mention in this article a Lebanese house for the manufacture of women's at-home apparel, the house of the "Perfect Negligee," because fortune favored me and I came to know it at close range, together with its owners, the Maalouf family; I followed its activity and saw for myself the signs of its success and its lead over many other American houses, for it is counted one of three houses in America that hold first place in the manufacture of this type of women's at-home wear.

This great house stands at