The man behind the cheerfully-colored women's shirts above is the first of Britain's top designers to invade the U.S. Digby Morton has always seemed the daring and adventuresome type to stay-at-home british couturiers. In 1949 he took a collection to Paris because U.S. buyers were by-passing London. Recently (1953 - my annotation) he made a trip to this country to step up interest in british styling as well as british fabrics. Besides selling some striking custom designs, he arranged to have some of his suits produced by Philip Mangone and was hired by the Hathaway Co. to style their Lady Hathaway shirts (those above cost $7.95 to $38.50). Copying the cut of men's shirts, Morton has heightened the hues for women and, using a dizzy array of fabrics and patterns, has equipped each shirt with a contrasting bow tie. He has also adapted the male's edwardian waistcoat into a florid feminine style.
Needlepoint waistcoat forms fancy front of a dress which sells for about $500 in the U.S. Embroidery is done to order by english countrywomen.
(left) Box jacket goes over matching slip in Digby Morton's suit of lightweight Donegal tweed.
(right) Tricky top with jersey pulled diagonally comes with suit, can be worn over tweed slip in afternoon.
Tweed slip, the basis of the suit, can also be worn alone as a dress with the waist cinched in by a wide leather belt. This makes the suit an all-day outfit. The jacket and slip will be copied in the U.S. by Philip Mangone for $165.
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