Radcliffe Girl Emphasizes Femininity In Switch From "Sloppy-Joe" Style

Pearls will be worn--not only for social functions, but to dress up a sweater and skirt for classroom wear. What's more, the sweater will fit. The untidy, form-concealing pullover is as passe as the high-button shoe. The skirt may be one of the magic orions, which never lost their pleats. And no sneakers.

The Cliffedweller has, in a word, faced the fact that she is a woman, or nearly so. Now she wants men to realize this too.

Some of the evident effects of this revelation are the abouitous pearls, which are replacing the thoughtlessly-tied scarf at the neck of a sweater, blouse or shirt. These are often obviously fake pearls, many ropes of them, of a phenomenal size. They can be iridiscent, or big knobby baroque pearls. They may be interlarded with equally fraudulent amber and gold. Anyway, pearls all over the place.

Classic Cashmere

As the tentlike sweaters go, the dressmaker sweaters make their appearance. Sweaters have little scalloped collars, odd sloeves, and fancy embroidery. Since they are now do rigeur for evening wear, some of the most luxurious cashmeres come embroidered with pearls and bugle beads, or trimmed with mind at the neck and cuffs. The classic cashmere, often of purest white, is worn with a jumbled treasure-house of beads, necklaces, and pearls again, or with a fantastic pseudo-Renaissance choker or a vast bib of phoney gems.

All this heavy jewelry and the increasingly feminine sweaters and skirts require pretty, polished shoes--and certainly no sneakers. Classrooms are in for a new era of neat loafers and slim low pumps, or the handsome British shoes and their imitations now flooding the market. Stockings are important; the woolly anklets take their place with the extinct Great Auk.

Even blue jeans are on the wane, giving place to tidy Bermuda shorts of grey flannel and various tartans, with Black Watch and Buchanan the reigning favorites. Jeans will never really die, since there is nothing to replace them for the ruggeder sort of picnic and such essentially untidy jobs as housecleaning, but girls are beginning to realize at last that there's little point in pretending to be men.

Despite all trends toward femininity, the men's shirt still seems to be holding its own. Tops for room and dorm casual wear, shirts of all colors, with emphasis on pink and blue, hide the curves almost as often as ever. Yet even along this line, the 'Cliffedweller is moving toward more neatness. Shirt tails are always tucked in and attractive color combinations are used to advantage.

Along with the trend toward neatness and feminity and the emphasis on belts, accessories of all kinds are getting attention. The all-purpose leather pocketbook is being made in a variety of shapes and sizes, a boon to the little girl who looks as if she's carrying her laundry when she sports an Amazon-sized satchel bag. The favorite all-purpose gloves are still string-knit, with the British product out in front.

New things happen to hair these days, too. The blond streak is back, and there are powders and potions that can color the hair between washings or simply give it new life by concentrating on the highlights. The hairdo depending entirely on a sturdy rubber band is on the way out.

Permanents are softer and infinitely adaptable with the aid of hair-jewels, fancy ribbons, and stand-for-no-nonsense brushes. Hair is often short, but extremely becoming things are being done to manes and mops--much more sophisticated, often, than a short curly cut. Above all, they show the earrings, which can be enormous structures covering the entire shell of the ear or great suspensions of rhinestones like magnified snowflakes. Or pearls.

The dreams of fashion editors and concentional oldsters seem to be coming true, and the Radcliffe girl is emerging as the young lady they have long urged her to be. It's been an uphill battle against babush, sneakers, bobby sox and boys clothes, but the forces of prettiness and good grooming seem to be winning for once.