Your Beauty and the Sport of Skiing — What Do You Wear on the Snow?

Among the sights grown familiar to our eyes these days is that of the cars returning from the peaks and slopes of the mountains, skis strapped to their backs and snow piled upon them... Never have I passed a car coming back from a skiing trip on the snows without slowing a little to drink in the sight, and to peer inside at the young coppery faces, caught up in the innocent play of youth, always wishing that this winter sport might spread in the widest possible circle, until it reaches all classes of people, and especially the women among them.

I said the women — and I am never more admiring of, or more pleased with, the athletic renaissance that has begun in recent years to find its way into all Lebanese circles. But what concerns me about it particularly now is its great benefit to woman, and its attention to the beauty and harmony of her body.

And what is said of skiing over the snows in winter may just as truly be said of water-skiing in the remaining seasons of the year. Both are wholesome and beneficial, giving a woman's body health and vigor and bestowing upon it a supple, yielding flexibility.

Nor let us forget, likewise, the effective part that skiing — whether on snow or on water — plays in the gracefulness and trimness of a woman's figure, and in curbing the quantity of fat that usually gathers in certain regions of her body. All these reasons make it fitting that skiing, in both its kinds, should become a popular and beloved sport among our ladies.

It gladdens us that Lebanon, despite its recent acquaintance with this kind of sport, should occupy a distinguished place among the nations of the world, winning international prizes and drawing the world's eyes toward it; and it gladdens us likewise that woman should accompany man in this blessed athletic renaissance, and have her share of its victories. In truth, nothing whatever holds woman back from such an ambition, for all the qualifications required of a skier are found in her: lightness of movement, steadiness of nerve, patience and endurance in perseverance and practice, besides her skill in keeping her balance.

Woman in Lebanon, as she readies herself for grave rounds in her long struggle to prove her existence, needs strength, vigor, and far-sightedness; and nothing so much as the practice of sport in the open air, winter and summer, can give her what she needs — in addition to its surpassing care for her beauty, her grace, and the trimness of her figure.

So, my sister woman: a sacred duty spurs us on to reclaim our natural right in life, by regaining our civil rights and obtaining absolute equality — the utmost hope of our lives. Yet not one of these duties shall keep us from attending to our beauty and preserving our femininity, the wellspring of that beauty... And indeed, the turning away of a great number of us into forsaking the athletic life robs them of many of their delicate charms of beauty, and licenses in them an excess of stoutness, so that no dress looks beautiful on them any longer, however high its price and however rare its fabric.

It is only natural that the skier needs special clothes, different from those worn in her ordinary life in the cities — and we have chosen for you, Madam, here, some charming and original fashions, designed by the most famous fashion houses of Paris...