EVEN THEY DESIGN HER CLOTHES
So the Ministry of Munitions took the matter up and summoned the designers. As the result, the most charming "creation" was adapted from the vaudeville stage for industry. The girl "lift" conductors at Selfridge's Store in London are the prettiest things you will find out of a chorus. Theirs are called, I believe, "peg top" breeches, and there is a semi-fitted coat, the whole uniform in mauve and beautifully tailored. Well, the Government has issued a variety of patterns, some of course, for a much less expensive outfit than this. There is one uniform that costs not more than 4 shillings: sometimes the firm even furnishes it and launders it. The costume it is most desired to introduce is the khaki trousers with the tunic and a round cap, because it is really a protection for the workers against the revolving machinery. Factories not yet quite ready for the whole innovation, begin with the tunic and a cap and a skirt. But when you have convinced Mrs. Black how well she is going to look in the other things, she's ready to put them on.
The situation adjusts itself. This report has been made on it to the Government. I quote verbatim from the published Proceedings of Parliament and a member's speech: "The Ministry has spent a very considerable amount of time in going into this matter. It would seem to us as men a simple thing. But at any rate now from all I have heard, they appear to have solved the difficulties. The women's
