Evening star., 1934-09-16
AMERICAS
IOUkG DESIGNERS
E6& PARIS Of #, 1au
Usrs $
q cRfOO51ia,

UST as surely as rice comes from China
and tea grows In Japan, clothes design
came from Paris until q decade ago.
Small American girls who made blue
q dresses and pink dresses for their very
favorite dolls never dreamed that they
might have q chance to send their models
marching down the ramp in o fashion parade
some day. That was distinctly Paris privi-
lege. Dark-haired girls from Avignon and
Armentieres had such honors.
During the last 10 years several ambitious
American men and women have been given
an opportunity to prove that they can design
clothes that are as good looking any that
are seen along the Rue de la Paix. The clothes
parade on Fifth avenue Is attracting buyers
from everywhere in America.
One of the lead positions in the home de
signing group belongs to Elizabeth Hawes, whose
frocks first met with campus approval at
VaSsar.
Miss Hawes designed for theatricals as well
as for her friends wardrobes. When she re-
ceived her college diploma in 1925, she went to
Paris. For three and one-half years she
sketched for buyers and wrote fashion copy.
She spent season at Nicoe CIRCUITS, designing.
She came back to America then, to convince
the Fifth avenue shops that American stores
should have American designers. She couldn't
sell the idea. Therefore she opened her own
shop and her clothes sold Immediately.
w
ONE day she packed her trunks, went over
~ to Paris, and attempted to rent room
where she could show the Partisan couturiers
what she had been doing. The French de-
sgners, who were accustomed to having Amer
ican buyers, not American designers come to
them, were Mortified.
The hotels refused to rent the dark-eyed
girl with the begmhng bangs ball room for
her exhibit. The newspapers didn't want her
advertising. The great couturiers, for the most
part, were sorry, they said but they were going
to be out of town on the day of her exhibit.
1t didn't look as though there would be
an exhibit, anyway. Then the American colony
in Paris heard about Miss Hf,wkes' difficulty.
The "Star Spangled Banner" began to echo.
influence was brought to bear on the Ambas-
saders Restaurant and the disaIAy was staged
there. Only few French designers attended.
But the American girl had achieved her pur-
pose. From that minute OH she established.
The girl who had won pat I contest when
she was II had cut out des-2 ning career for
herself.
"The mushroom like growth of American de-
signers is almost frightening to me-" she says
now. II only hope that the designers will come
along fast enough to keep up with the demand
for their products. 1t really seems as if Ameri-
can industry realized that the most satisfactory
source of design for the United States lies in
the United States"
= CLADYS PARKER, minute, young, typically
~ American, never had shop in Paris and
never studied design in Paris. In fact, she has
never been to Paris.
But she is the first American manufacturer to
manufacture as well as design her own clothes.
Her frocks are as gayly impudent as youth itself.
Her aim is to have girls dress up in a bright,
young way to have a merry time.
MISS Parker. whose designs are for girls