Evening star., 1943-10-28
District Women Fine
Sturdy Underwear
Is Luxury Item

! Stores are having a hard time
supplying women workers in Wash
| ington with underwear-a shortage
due partly to the War Production
Boards system of underwear dis
tribution, survey by The Star re-
vealed today.
In fact, servicea BILE items such as
bloomers, snuggies, sturdy girdles,
tailored "panties" and flannel night
gowns are now in the luxury class.
1t is easier to buy frilly, lacy lingerie
than the more practical type of
underwear demanded by women
workers, it was disclosed
War Production Board restrictions
have cut supplies of underwear ev-
erywhere in the country on a uni
form basis for men' and women of
all ages. Washington feminine
population has been increasing so
rapidly, however, that demand for
women's wear is out of proportion
to mems and childrens.
Women Out of Luck.
However you look at it, the wom-
en- are in bad shape" the vice pres
ident of one large department store
declared. There are three or three
and-one-half women buying under
wear here to every two feminine
customers we had before. Yet they
don't get any more supplies than
the lesser numbers of men and chill
dren do"
All the store managers hope this
system of uniform distribution will
be remedied by WPB in the near
future, they said. Pittsburgh, it was
explained. has suffered a similar
scarcity of mems underwear because
of the unusual influx of men work.
ers into factories there
They ought to find out what
kind of people are pouring into
Washington" said one harrassed
saleswoman Not how many"
War conditions had already re-
moved silk, rubber and lastex from
womens underwear The WPB cut
in the amounts of underwear manu-
factured has pared store supplies
down to rayon slips, pants, bras
sieres and pajamas; part rayon and
part cotton snuggies, pantie girdles
and pajamas; lacy rayon underwear
of all kinds.
Missing items are bloomers; WOOL
en- underdraWerS to warm the GUS
toner from neck to knee; girdles
with rubber, lastex or zippers; pan
tie girdles with anything resembling
woolen pajamas.
Supplies of all kinds are low. One
store got 600 low-priced rayon cot
ton girdles with draw strings about
10 am. in the morning. At pm.
the girdles were sold.
Stores have two dozen pairs of
flannel pajamas where 1900 used
to be stored at this time of year.
The serviceable type of pantie that
girl could bend in without fear"
salesman said, are sold out by
stores as soon as limited shipments
come in.
Medium Sizes Sell Quickly.
Medium sizes suffer particularly
from predominance of feminine GUS
toners, it was explained. Sizes 80
to 38 are sold out long before sizes
% or 42 or A are gone.
In addition, cotton and rayon suit
the smaller or heavier woman bet
ter than they suit the medium
sized woman, saleswomen explained.
Heavier women can still find the
strong cotton corsets with lacings
and whalebone.
The slight woman does not suffer
from the lightweight strength of
the new pantie girdles and girdles
The medium girls get hit hard
est" a manager said The girdles
they get will only keep wrinkles out
of the dresses. They won't do much
else"
Faced by shortage of flannel pa
jamas and complete lack of woolen
ones, women have started buying
warm pajamas in mems styles, an
other store disclosed. All but 7 of
300 pairs of mems warm pajamas
in small sizes had been sold to
women at one counter.