The Washington times., 1935-09-26
NOW
The Fascinating
/ FrenChWOnuan
JUST A MYTH?
BY HELEN ESSARY

Trenchwomen I read and hear
about?
I've been in Paris for two
weeks. I begin to think the
beauty and the style Of the
Frenchwoman is a fable, for I
have seen few with the chic and
the charm Of the average Amer.
lean woman.
Most Of the Frenchwomen
I've been looking at are ugly.
They have hard mouths and big
noses. Their feet are broad and
clumsy. They have thick ankles
and large hands.
They are so heavily made up
that they could be used to ad-
vertise a national anthem. At
10 O'Clock in the morning and
during the rest Of the day and
night, their eyes are gooey with
mascara.
| Or else their dull skins are so
firmly washed, so completely
! natural that their faces seem
featureless.
; Many of the Frenchwomen I
have seen, curl, frizz and dye
their hair until they look the
| part Of a hairdresser's display.
! Or they let straight wisps Of
| hair trail frankly about the
! neck
J. "Ah, but the lure Of the
FrenchwOman-the lure that Is
. legend!"
One woman cannot recognize
lure in another woman. Pos
sibly so. But it seems to me
that some Frenchwomen are so
determinedly beguiling, so bla-
family out to charm, that they
aren't worth a special effort.
Au contraire, other French
women are so completely prac-
tical that they chill the marrow
bone.
There are only two kinds Of
Frenchwomen, so I understand.
There is the grim, plainly
dressed housewife who watches
her pennies and her husband
with sharp eyes. I know one
of these who wears stiff cam
bric lingerie.
Then there is the courtesan
(elegant or garden variety.
Quite frankly the female of the
species. Her avocation is to
please some man. Her world
the world Of sex.
The lift of her eyes, the un'
dulation of her walk, the studied
"come hither," EGr clothes
well, you can't miss those gals
Of the demi-mondaine.
Between these two types
the good and the not so good
! there is no medium in Paris.
No pleasing, adaptable feminine
creature such as one finds
everywhere in America
P GCertafnly tho FrenchwOman
dresses smartly!"
! Another axiom in the fable Of
French beauty.
What Frenchwoman dresses
Smartly, I ask you.
! Few women in New York,
Chicago, San Francisco or any
small American town would
wear the hideous shoes, often
with rundown heels, the cotton
stockings, the badly fitting
clothes and the plain, unbecom-
| ing hats Of the average French
woman.
s. 'But perhaps you haven't
been to the haunts Of the smart
Frenchw0men?"
Perhaps not. But I've been
on the Rue de Ia PaiX, the
Place Vendome, and the Champs
ElySees. I've been to the good
hotels and restaurants and to
the opera.
Some of the upper-class wom.
en- have come out Of their hid
ing and been seen by me at a
few Of these places. But not
in groups comparable with the
smart women at similar places
in the United States,
Ills d4GeT11OOu dG one OF CNS
bars where deposed European
royalty go with their new loves,
I discovered several awfully
good-looking women. And said
so.
"Ohl" I was told. ''They are
Spanish"
At a fashion show of a cele-
brated dressmaker yesterday,
the manikins were attractive
and full of chic. But they were
not wearing their own clothes.
They were displaying the models
the dressmaker hoped to sell to
the foreign buyers, to the &C.