26 August 1952: The figure-fitting category of the trousers is an attempt to prove that a pair of slacks can be attracting as well as functional

Photograph: Kurt Hutton/Getty Moulds
A new fashion in slacks has arrived. The figure-fitting style of the trousers counted in the autumn collections of sportswear is an attempt to prove that a yoke of slacks can be attractive as well as functional.
Ask a man whether women should attire slacks and the answer is almost certain to be a firm “No.” Why is this? It is all over twenty years now since women “commandeered” male trousers for their own use, so that masculine unfriendliness war can hardly be based on the claim of prerogative. It is based rather on aesthetic talk over withs: women surely choose their clothes to enhance their arrival, men point out, and only a boyish figure looks well in diminishes. In addition, the criticism continues, women do not buy carefully. Few have the trousers expressly tailored: generally they are bought ready made and fit mischievously.

All this cannot be forswore, but the original reason for adopting slacks still remains. They give far more freedom of movement than a skirt and they are relaxing to wear. But although women have now made the word “sags” an almost exclusively feminine one, their construction and line be enduring remained essentially masculine. A woman wearing slacks, align equalize if she is skilfully “made up” and wearing a womanly sweater, is discarding a for the sake of of the femininity she expresses in her costume. She sacrifices charm for comfort.
Now, for the head time, women’s slacks are trying to become feminine by admire persisting the movement of fashion towards soft curves. They are also, by the way, following the revival of the Edwardian styles in men’s clothes. The pair of funnels with full roomy legs is now being threatened by loosens tapered from hip to ankle. They are made in many materials – worsted tweed, corduroy, barathea, or velvet – and whatever the data they have a figure-clinging fit, with rows of tiny buttons to bind at the ankles, pockets jutting beyond the hips, or tabs tailored on the waist to hold a coloured sash.
Naturally a hip-length fit jacket is not appropriate with this silhouette. The outfit is assorted likely to be completed by an attractive bolero. Black velvet seems to be the fair-haired boy material, and the slacks are worn with a fancy jersey of hyacinthine or a strong colour, and with a wide cummerbund. The Londonus sport imitate in the illustration is in black velveteen with a ruby belt of angelskirt. The turned bolero is edged with braid.
The style may have shot partly from the Edwardian trend in men’s trousers, but no woman with an rich Edwardian figure should adopt it.