What of the Night?

The night Shows stars and women in a better light.

—Byron, Don Juan

When Elsa Maxwell advised Hollywood that a “black tie” was the only suitable way to celebrate the freeing of Paris, the ice broke. Last week, after three winters of wartime underdressing, U.S. partygoers were back in evening clothes. In Manhattan, Broadway first-nighters showed up in dinner jackets and long dresses. Fifth Avenue seethed: Adrian’s plaid taffeta with a bustle back was the sensation of Bonwit Teller’s fashion show titled “I’m Dressing for my Darling”; Saks offered a beaded wool evening cloak ($139); the Tailored Woman recommended a shower of ostrich plumes on violet crepe. Lord & Taylor bought full-page ads, burbled: “Tonight—fabulous word once more. Now that we’re dressing for it . . . once more.” In San Francisco, Columnist Lucius Beebe applauded “the prevalence of opera hats and white ties” in the cream-&-gold opera house, a “lavish frame for chichi and chinchilla. . . .”

In Chicago, Mrs. Eleanor P. Whitaker, a Du Pont textile consultant, noted that more & more women war workers appear at factories in sleeveless, jumper-style dresses: “They are finding out that men don’t care to see women in slacks.”