When the Living Is Easy

Fashion trends for this summer will be as exotic as the Orient, as sleek as sheaths, as versatile as two-season designing will permit, and as fashionable as ever. Both women's and men's clothing will essentially follow convention, yet there will be twists of the bizarre.

Women's bathing suits will be sheer; cocktail dresses will be bell-shaped. Men's jackets will be checked; haberdashers will also offer open-toed beach sandals.

The two most notable trends, however, in men's and women's summer clothing are the importation of Far Eastern patterns and designs for men's sport clothing and beachwear, and the designing of women's clothing for versatility--indoors and out and summer and fall.

Transitional cottons--warm-weather dresses with a look to the fall--take center stage in women's fashions for the season. Light enough for summer comfort, they emphasize color combinations that look right for fall.

Plaids and stripes are dominant in cottons. Especially popular are the red Steward plaid and an elephant gray ombre plaid. With the exception of the Stewart, most of the current plaids tend toward muted, blackened colors. Quilted plaids are also in the running.

Narrow strips combine khaki color, ruddy brown, and chocolate brown with black for another distinctive pattern of the year. Dramatic paisleys are popular on lightweight cotton challis dresses. Offbeat colors--for example, an olive, turquoise, and pink combination--often add an imaginative touch.

Transitional Styles

The styles of the transitional cottons range from slim sheaths to full-shirted shirt-waists. In general, they give a look which is citified and cool.

Dresses with accompanying jackets or coats fill the practicality-plus category. Their cool-cut, sleeveless bodices assure comfort when temperatures climb and the jackets are removed. These double-duty dresses meet the challenge of air-conditioning, which makes keeping warm indoors almost as great a problem as keeping cool outdoors.

Jackets are fitted and bloused, fitted and fastened in back, or lean and straight. Above-the-waist jackets feature the new Directoire bustline. Many dresses effect the two-piece look and Directoire line by a combination of solid color with pattern.

Bell-Shaped Sheaths

Jumper-like sheaths with jackets are dressy enough for cocktail wear in hot weather. The newest style for the belle of the ball, however, is the bell-shaped look. This relative novelty in dressy styles is smooth in front, curves out from the waist, and develops more fulness in back.

The slim black silhouette is also popular in midseason dressy wear. Rear-view interest is achieved with blousing, panels, and more concentrated fulness at the back.

Silk is becoming more popular this year as a material for dressy junior sizes, although cotton is still the predominant fabric in the junior miss dresses. Cashmere-type cottons are gaining popularity this season, and cotton knits are being shown for travel wear.

For the sun-and-fun bound traveler or the back-yard barbecuer, vacation separates are the perennial favorite. To stay comfortable and versatile, the vacationer can wear a one-piece playsuit with an accompanying skirt--on the beach, skirt off; for a lunch date or shopping jaunt, skirt on.

In the fancy pants line, fine sheen gabardines and chinos prevail. To top them off corduroy shirt-jackets are the newest. Sport blouses with drawstring waists and cowl neck are another headliner. With colored braid and bow, sailor middies in white broadcloth are again popular.

Loose T-shirts can be worn with shorts and pedal pushers and are big news fashion-wise for beachwear when worn over swimsuits. Individual details on T-shirts include bloused cut, rib knit boarders, slashed sides, or sailor collars.

Sleek Swimsuits

In swimsuits the most important style of the year is the sleek, smooth suit. Elasticized faille is predicted a 70 per cent choice for swimwear this season, with vivid colors and stripes prominent. Cotton suits are noteworthy for their uncluttered look, and sleek lines are of course a natural in the knitted variety.

As the male population on the summer beaches watches the sleek-suited, T-shirted damsels parade by, the men will not be completely oblivious of their own apparel. For masculine sportswear the season's cry is, "Go East, young man."

The latest in sporty fashions come from the Far East and combine a fine masculine dignity with a great variety of fresh and colorful patterns. For beachwear, the fashion-conscious man may choose a collarless Happi beach coat with matching trunks in a bright, bold print.

Formosa Shirts

Sports shirts with a look to the East have unique patterns. Some have a Paisley-type design, and one two-tone shirt with a standing collar is genuinely Chinese. The Formosa sports shirt is another Eastern exclusive. Even with a conservative white shirt men who want the new look can get it with a Madras tie. There are bright patterned caps to top off the outfits.

Riviera Sandals

The more tradition dresser can go down to the sea in classic clamdiggers, in a spare, Italian cut, augmented by side vents for ease around the knees. With them he can wear a pull-over beach shirt styled with matching vents and a new Italian collar fastened with rope. To complete the Continental look are broad-brimmed straw hats with tapered crown and patterned band.

Footwear is following sportwear's unusual trends with a foreign touch: lightweight shoes of distinctive tropical leathers. An open-toed shoe for men is a daring first, patterned after Southern France and the Italian Riviera, where most men wear sandals.

The young debonair who is stepping out for a summer's evening should check up on his checks. Check-mating the fashion scene is a wave of box-like designs. In checks with plaids, the flannel-finish jacket of extremely light weight, two-or three-button model, is being worn with slacks of tropical worsted, cut along very trim lines.

Rope and Straw

Completing these high-fashion ensembles is the new Flat-top hat in fuzzy Shetland-finished felt, with a narrow brim and a sporty taper running up to an absolutely flat summit. There's even a bow in the back.

To add a finishing touch with a new-style belt, this season features rope, reptile skins, straw, and the more conventional felts and leathers--the male can be sure he is well-dressed when he goes to call for is date, who is doubtless wearing the latest styles herself.David, H. Rhinelander '58 of Anne Morrison '59No matter what a girl is doing, Touraine's seems to have the answer. The summer cocktail dress to the left sells for $39.95. The front is waffle pique in white, the back is cotton eyelet in pink. It boasts a halter neck, a bouffant skirt, and a bow in the back. If a girl chooses to lift umbrellas while waiting for a storm outside to quiet down, this beige-and-white striped raincoat (left), lined in olive-green with a pocket on the sleeve is hers for $25. Ideal for the girl (below) who wants to pet her oriental tiger or play with her orientals dolls are these black chino toreador pants for $5.98 with a black cotton classic blouse for $4.98. The black-and-red striped jacket has push up sleeves and sells for $8.98.