Radcliffe Rejects 'The Stringbean Silhouette'

Every year about this time, poets, young girls, and fashion writers frantically seek fresh, unique unwritten about harbingers of Spring. One used to be able to point to Braves Field, and connect the activity there with the first swallow. But the Braves are no longer in Braves Field. Perhaps one could point to the occult Rain Dance of the Hopi Indians as the first indication of the new season. But, while rain is a common feature of a Cambridge Spring, Hopi Indians are exceedingly rare, and one could never find enough together at one time to perform their Rain ceremony anyway. Ball bearing planting at the foot of the world tree has become passe. Ordinarily, we could point to the opening of Lincoln Downs as a valid harbinger, but it's too late now--the nags have been running for a week and Clocker Spanielle has already lost his button-down shirt. Wellesley hasn't held its Hoop race and Radcliffe hasn't discarded its knee sox.

Indications Are Few

As a matter of fact, hard as we've looked, we've been able to find absolutely no indications that Spring is upon us. But Cambridge being what it is, we really shouldn't have expected any.

However, the dictator Fashion is a hard taskmaster. The season doesn't at all resemble Spring, but Spring fashions are upon us. Fashions are indeed the true harbinger of Spring--or any other season, for that matter.

If we were to be practical, we'd advise you to stock up on raincoats, rain hats, overshoes, and the like. But we've been reading Harper's and Mademoiselle and Vogue, and that's not the thing.

New Silhouette Falls Flat

Word has it that the stringbean silhouette is the thing this Spring. But Radcliffe refuses to go along with the lines dictated by the experts. As far as the 'Cliffe is concerned, the stringbean silhouette falls flat.

Were we to trace the course of all nine curves on an all-purpose graph, we would find it asymptotically approaching an abscissa. In other words, they're getting flatter. This is deplorable.

Immediately after the war, the hour-glass outline was in vogue: accentuated, and inflated, the female figure took on a "New Look." But in the last few years, with box jackets, stringbean silhouettes, and lower waists, the curve has straightened out.

The French Curve

Fashions are being drawn with a T-square instead of a French curve.

But the Radcliffe girl, typically enough, is resisting the trend and distorting the graph. Their waist-lines are getting higher, their waists are getting smaller with an assist from the cinch belt. Curves along the hips and bust are re-accentuated, re-exaggerated, and re-inflated.

Unless the bubble bursts, the word at the Annex this Spring shoul be "voluptuousness."

Sterile, sanctimonious styles have yielded to the soft, sleek, and seductive. Like Hollywood, the 'Cliffe has tuned to the "three dimensional" look, and you don't need polaroid glasses.

Variety's the Word

And, along with Radcliffe's new lines, we should have this Spring: a variety of colors--brash, bright, and buoyant in skirts, deep tones or dainty pastels in dresses; a similar variety in skirts--from the Guatemalan to the Indian print to the broomstick skirt; as for blouses, nothing much can change there anyway. And we've even heard of a lipstick called Volupte.

However, we sometimes wonder why we even bother saying all this. For, when the rain does stop and Spring does arrive in Cambridge, the 'Cliffe girl will discard her knee sox and overshoes for short sox and dirty sneakers. The cumbersome raincoat will disappear, and lo!--we will find beneath it the grubby button-down shirt or the over-sized sweater.

But--perhaps this Spring will be different. At any rate, we'll be watching.