A Fashion Talk for Summer 1955

The world of fashion is forever subject to change. It develops as life develops, and life today is in atomic progress, especially in this century, the twentieth century.

Fashions submit to alterations dictated by the seasons: spring has a dress that differs completely from the dress of winter.

We ladies' tailors can do nothing but follow the development of fashion closely, acquainting ourselves with everything novel and new in it. I went to Paris out of my usual desire to see the latest with which its fashion houses have favored the world. We all know the first place that capital occupies in this field — I mean the field of the art of fashion — a place which no European or American capital has been able to contest with her. So I visited the two princes of elegance, Jacques Heim and Christian Dior, and others among those who impose their opinions in the world of fashion upon the most elegant women on earth.

What struck me in Dior's collection for summer '55 is this passage from the "H" line to the "A" line, without any serious difference in invention or in general form. On the whole one feels a lowering of the waist with Dior, as with the rest of the Parisian tailors. The waist has no fixed seat, but moves according to need, or according to the lady's view, just as it pleases whoever writes the letter "A" to place the middle bar of that letter. The shoulders have remained natural, while sleeves are absent from all his designs. For the collar he substitutes a ribbon tied in a knot that falls down the back.

The tailored suits are neither extremely full nor extremely tight; one may say of them that they are "close to the body." The cocktail dress is marked by a wide décolleté and the absence of sleeves and belt. The evening gown inclines to the short rather than to the long, as is usual.

Dior uses various kinds of fabric, from tweed to silky wool to shantung to faille and other fabrics suited to his designs. His favored colors this season are navy, which takes the place of black, beige, yellow, blue, and red; in general, this season's range of colors inclines to the bright rather than to the dark.

As for Jacques Heim, he has given his collection this season the name "Veut debout," or "the puff," which displays the beauties of a woman's figure without hampering her movements, so that the lady remains unconfined, free in her motion. With Heim the dress comes flat in front, with a perceptible fullness at the back, but visibly below the waist. The two-piece abounds in his collection, whether in dresses or in tailored suits, it being understood that the waist drops as far as the hips in most cases.

Heim agrees with Dior in replacing black with navy, and dark colors with bright ones.

This is something of what caught our eye in this season's fashions, besides the variations in designs which we keep in reserve for each of our ladies individually.