A Woman's New York (2-9-41)

Reading Eagle (February 9, 1941)

A WOMAN’S NEW YORK
By Alice Hughes

History is repeating itself for the able, alert and ambitious career girls of our town, The calling of young men for military service will remove many a lad from junior executive spots in our big retail shops and in all branches of the fashion business, and while it may be a slightly ghoulish thought, this defection to the business of Mars is going to open cracks in many doors, and into them will be stuck well-shod feminine toes. You watch!

The real beginnings of several flashy New York career women came with the last national emergency in 1917-1918. At that time, two of my best friends in the fashion business were writing ad copy for a nationally famous store here. They were smart and ambitious, and loved and lived their business. They were Mary Lewis, who now owns her own dress business after years of vice-presidenting two of Gotham’s biggest specialty stores, and Estelle Hamburger, long a great success in the retailing world and now promotion manager for a New York newspaper. One by one the young men put on uniforms and shuffled off to war. In no time Mary and Estelle, clever and full of ambition, had bigger jobs at more pay, and their feet were set on the highway to remarkable success. The story is charmingly told in Estelle’s fascinating book, It’s a Woman’s Business. Incidentally, Stella found time to have the finest pair of twin boys in town.

Many others came along right now after this period. Tobe became the first great stylist, and now she runs a style information whose word is law to about 100 of the country’s leading merchants. So history is going to show us a carbon copy of the years of World War I. Many likely lads are going to march off to military training, and many clever girls are going to slide into their still-warm chairs. Men have always said that all’s fair in love; but for the ambitious career girls, all’s fair in business. If you don’t think so, you should see some of the breed in action.

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Girl about town
A good many thousands of our girls are going to be “Army wives” any minute, and an Army wife is unlike anything but a “Navy wife,” who is more so, with the loved one with the battlefleet in the Far Pacific. It’s a strange new life, and I’ve just received a new book that is an interesting primer for its fundamentals. The tome is Star-Spangled Summer, by Janet Lambert, whose husband is a colonel of cavalry, and who is the sister-in-law of Eleanor Lambert, our town’s beautiful and brilliant press agent. Swell fodder for prospective Army wives.

Gogo

Cutest new romance is the engagement of Marisa (Gogo) Schiaparelli, daughter of the noted dressmaker, and Robert Berenson, a Boston boy in the shipping business. Gogo’s mama went scudding back to what is left of her Paris business. She’s a sweet kid, and all the best to her. Wedding next month.

Poor Ginger Rogers! The kid comes east to relax and rest, runs head-on into 250 screaming young fans at the depot, and then is off to a tiny, intimate cocktail party for her with only 2,000 present. Then Ginger took to bed and stayed there.

….

Mary Lewis, that smart-tousle-headed blonde, showed us about 30 new spring costumes the other day. The feature novelty of this show is what she calls a “broomstick” dress, borrowed from the great ladies of the Apache tribe. It seems that when they wash their gay cotton dresses, they wrap them, still wet, around a broomstick. What comes off is a sort of dirndl with all sorts of cock-eyed crinkles. Quite a cute new stunt. Mary, who practically invented red, white and blue costumes, crashed out with a scarlet flannel cape, covering a white jersey dress with red, white and blue borders. The tendency is to salute when the model strides out.

With thousands of good American boys marching off to camp with no fuss, localities make a sickening fuss over their “lads.” Tommy Tailer, society’s big-shot golfer, enlisted for three years in the Regular Army. Howls of admiration went up, as though he were unique. He’s modest and anxious to serve, but is badly served by newspaper chatterers who fuss.

Nightclubs and gals are furious at young officers who wear spurs put dancing. Rip floors, dresses, stockings. Naughty boys!

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