Women and the Cynical Bachelor (Twelve)

Do not read this advert (from March 3, 1928) until you've finished eating.

"A woman," said the Cynical Bachelor, "is a woman one-tenth of her life. For the other nine-tenths she is a model for clothes."

"My friend," smiled He Who is Post-Graduate in One Woman at least, "your point of view is oblique. A woman is never more truly a woman than when she is concerned with clothes. For her preoccupation with clothes is her aspiration to the ideal expression of her womanhood.

"And every woman can apply all her creative and interpretative power, unhampered, if she knows those admirable Studios for the Expression of Feminine Personality--the Emily Shops.

"Here, with all dresses distinctively smart, all prices delightfully moderate, her one problem is-- which of all these desirable frocks will most completely express her."

I do agree that women have room for EXPRESSION with their clothes, far beyond what men's clothing can express. But if women weren't REQUIRED to use these clothes to express themselves, perhaps it would be more acceptable for them to do it in other ways...particularly in ways not outlined by the editors of Vogue?

But I'm stopping before I sound like John Barth.