New Britain herald., 1930-09-08
New Profession

| 'S'A1S'l arc ever SO Hlucu DeCLeI
 looking than they were ten years
 ago.
 And if they are, there's a reason! women today are having a voice in deciding what they shall
 wear. A little more than ten years ago they didn't have any
 more to say about the style of their pomps than they did about the kind of laws they obeyed.
 Then equal suffrage and stylists came on the scene. Brains and beauty staged joint debut.
 Today there are almost one thousand paid stylists. sometimes known as fashion workers, trying to help American women choose the styles, colors and fabrics which will give them chic and charm and beauty.
 Mrs. Mary Brooks Picken, fla nous new York stylist. who teaches Economics of Fashion at Columbia University, was one of the first women to enter the styl. ing profession.
 Representing All Women "A stylist is a woman's repre. sentative" she explains "She has the woman's viewpoint. For many years women had to accept mems views. But when she started to in- crease her earning and her spend ing power she wanted to choose her own clothes. Stylists officially rec osnlzed as such, developed" Mrs. Picken also has a fabric and fashion studio in New York city, where she is busy training stylists and would-be stylists con- tinually. Her golden hair, large brown eye and rose petal com plexlon add personal claim to the styles she suggests.
 T have to make my students clothe conscious" she said. T have to break down their preju. dices against certain colors and fabrics. and also make. them in- terested in clothes as general subject for everyone instead of in their own individual wardrobes."
 Mrs. Picken has Wound that daily papers and magazines are making women develop a. style sense. They are learning to as- semble their wardrobe from pic lures before they buy anything.
 And when they do buy, it is a womap's touch that is back of the picture. The touch of a woman trained to know just what lines and fabrics and styles are best suited to women.
 The various types of stylist positions are varied, ranging all the way from designing garments to choosing the color of a strand of thread.
 "O3e girl became a stylist for d thread company" Mrs. Pickens told to grove the need of wo- mans influence. "she found that dull shades were being manufac- tured by the company, although the bright new colors for clothing were tn, vogue everywhere. She made a tour of 150 stores, noticed how the spools of thread were ar- ranged, what fabrics and what colors were selling in the cloth ing departments, and encouraged her industry to make the shades which corresponded to the cloth ing.
 She got busy with the stores, too. One of them was taking only 2S of the varieties of thread which her concern manufactured. She persuaded the store to increase this number to AS. The store in creased its thread sales 33 per cent in 20 days over the sales of the same time during the preceding year.
 When you consider that the average woman has to go mile for one spool of thread. it is im- portant that she find the shade that she wants when she arrives"
 Woman's touch, according to Mrs. Picken, has been felt always hut never permitted to have its day.
 Colonial furniture, which is as practical as it is beautiful, was made out of wood by men, at women's suggestion, to meet a certain household need A wo- mans styling was back of the mans work. And we have something lasting and beautiful"
 Women made their own clothes, too, at that time.
 It is this same principle that Mrs. Pickens and her students are attempting to put into clothes fashions.
 We used to have symphony o. colors in the wardrobe en- semble," she explained. Tt was a monotone. But now we have color contrasts. It is more con- 
 And incidentally, the women who are fashion makers, studying the styles, have more complicated tasks as result.
 Mrs. Picken believes that while America is the clothes dictator, Europe will continue to be the creator.
 A Too Swift Pace
 We work too fast to create" she said. "A girl must complete a certain amount of work by noon. But in France, for centuries whole families work for the same establishment. They aren't hur- ried. And new ideas come. Lit tie children are given needles and to think up designs as part of their childhood games"
 Fashions are becoming more and more what women want them to be, as women have more voice in choosing them. And feminine appeal is the latest development.
 The new fashions are making women mo1e feminine" Mrs. Pic ken believes. They are slowing lr dancing rhythm. They are encouraging women to [ entertain