The Daily Alaska empire., 1947-09-16
Battle of the Skirts
Shington Post)

burning question of the moment is whether women look better skirts that just cover knees skirts that stop halfway between knee and anke It all depends we suppose upon the shape of the leg and the age of the wearer The aspect the question that concerns us is that most women have little choice in the matter year the decisions made for them by fashion designers abetted by clothing manufact- urers whose chief purpose in life appears to be to increase demands for women's clothing by introducing new styles that make the wearer of old models feel Addressed.
 This practice of hastening obsolescence by means of superficial style changes is not confined to womens clothing On the contrary, it is a fairly widespread American practice And in prewar days the practice resulted in the replacement of all sorts of consumer articles such household furnishings and automo- biles long before they worn out by new pos which judged by strictly utiltarlan standards little any better However, the WomenS cloth- ing industry in oOinion rates number one III the list of industries that have been accustomed to exploit for their own advantage the hankering for novelty Wartime labor and material shortages tenn porarly put stop to this waste, making it possible for women to wear their dresses until they were shabby in the comfortable assurance that they would not attract unfavorabe attention Now all that will be changed if the fashion designers succeed in re- establishing their arbitrary power to decide what shall
 Change, know is the spice of life, but it is our hope that this time good many women will have the forttude to defy the decrees of fashion by continuing the short-skirted, comfortable garments that have introduced certain amount of standardization into an industry where 1t conspcuously lacking buyers revolt of this kind would be sautary rebuke as well a warning to those mpetuous nnovatorS who have dared to return to waseful methods of consumer exploitation at time when millions Of human beings in other countries are clothed n rags and more fortunate millions in the United States are groang under the pressure of high living costs This is time to husband resources in materials as Secretary Hartman has observed the world economic crisis puts upon all the need to defc our cravings any concern about the appearance of American women because whatever generally accepted looks all right to the average man or woman What we should like know is how much extra cloth will be required to fashion enc of the longer skrted garments, how many more such garments will be bought because short skirts are condemned oumoded and how much will be added to the clothing budget of nnumerable families because of the fashion revolution With living costs at record heights, these ques tions of vital to male heads of families and also to all industries supplying the essentials of life to family groups For rising clothing costs will entail reduction in ouays for all sorts of consumer articles that may be much essential to family health an. comfort Finally, how can we expect the ill., clothed and the undernourished millions of other coun tries to appreciate the advantages of the free enter prise system if the private industries that are the exemplars of that system prove themselves unworthy guardians of the trust reposed in them?
 Those the really important questions raised by the attempt of the fashion designers and their allies the clothing manufacturers to expand the market for their wares by resort to ll-timed anti social sales policies that add to the economic burdens of American families and are to attract deserved criticism from abroad.