Evening star., 1938-09-04
Virginia Boy
Sells Dress
Designs
Will Be Stylist
After Finishing
His Education.
By MARY JANE BRUMLEY.

I1AL1T I1ENcNoIS VI 1UO1 "CL.
l. ty-fifth street north. Arlington,
Va. has just passed his 18th
L birthday, but his future seems
already assured.
Philip. you see, has always been
interested in women's clothes and for
the past several years has been expert
menting in draping materials on and
designing dresses for an 18-inch doll.
Cynthia. Finally, in December, 1887,
he sent design to Bonwit Teller's
in New York City, asking for criticism
and whether they thought he had
any real talent for design. Quite
soon, a very sizeable check arrived
The great New York styliStS evidently
thought that the then l5-year- Vir-
ginian knew what he was about.
All sorts of exciting things have hap
pened to Philip since then-radio
broadcasts and personal appearances
and rush orders for beautiful gowns
He had just finished and mailed an
order for a wedding party when we
interviewed him one evening recently.
And there were the preliminary
sketches for the entire group-the
maid OF honor. ring bearer and the
little flower girl The colors were
lovely and not even the smallest de-
tail was lacking. Things look bright
indeed for boy with such marked
promise.
BUT Philip, who is said to be "Ameri-
cas- youngest dress designer" isn't
going to let anything interfere with
his high school work He's Just fin
lshed his sophomore year at Jefferson
High School at Falls Church, where
he was on the editorial staff of the
Jaguar And, if We could judge from
the clippings in large scrapbook,
there were lot of other activities, too.
Unlike many pupils who are talented
IN a particular line, Philip likes all of
his studies, except perhaps Latin" He
also admits being inclined to draw
doodaddles" during math and biology
classes. AS you might expect. history
is favorite subject with our young
designer. You can get grand ideas
from the history textbooks and 20
absolutely the limit in designing with
history as you guide" he says.
This influence is shown very clearly
in the beautiful Virginia ancestral
portrait gowns which Philip sketched
for BonWits which we're later featured
by a leading Richmond shop this
sprlng-With the creator making
personal appearance in the gown
salon on the opening day and sign
ing any number of autographs.
Philip stopped short here and asked
If We liked books. Stefan Zweig's
story Of Marie Antoinette" Law open
on the dlvan, just as he had dropped
1t when we arrived He reads a lot
and quite put us to shame with his
knowledge of best sellers.
nON'T ever think that Americas
youngest dress designer" is too
booklsh or one-sided sort of person,
though. He's anything else but!
That same scrapbook we've lust
mentioned contains a lot of stuff be-
sides publicity about the dresses. For
instance. there are first prize ribbons
for swimming, basket ball and base
ball, earned in 1886 at Camp Walla
Whatoolah, where the Hevenor bows
go every summer.
In fact, when Philip took the sum-
mer off to attend the Traphepen
School of Design in New York CITY.
1t made him miss camp for the first
time since he first began. So, he's
tried to get in some extra time at
sports. Has been working on tennis.
but says that he has some bad davs."
and any tennis player will understand
that, Philip is quite versatile at sports.
He plays little golf and likes horse
back riding best of all"
Like most of us. Philip has some
strong personal dislikes. People of
extreme intelligence" irk him. Just
the ordinary types are the most fun"
He hasn't thought much about college
yet, but has hopes of an apprentice
ship with Hattie Carnegie or one of
the big Paris designers. And. con-
sldering what he has already accom-
plished, that doesn't sound too op-
tlmlstic.
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