Don't despair when
dressing a spouse

I] THOUGHT I had changed his fashion tastes. I really did its huge red and green plaid made

— then I saw the ncon plaid jacket. him look like a neon Christmas
tree,

‘Who in his right mind would

After all these years | thought I

had curbed his fashion fiascoes By DIANE BENT wear such a thing?” [ thought to
until that bitter cold day when he Conteihuting Weer myself, then I lifted my eyes to the
pulled this skeleton out of the where we were mecting for dinner Wearer’s face. 1t was my husband!
closet. — and that's when I spotted it! 1 sank down in my chair in
I arrived early at the restaurant Not only was it big and bulky, bur despair —~ 14 years of work gone
in one swipe.

PURPLE POWER

When I met Richard | thought
everything about him was wonder-
ful, except his wardrobe. He gave
a whole different shade of meaning

4 6to the Color Purple, back then.
Head to toe, his passion for purple
(called Italian plum at the time)
knew no bounds. But that wasn’t

rk Royal South
922-8715

Finally all
3 e i sees
| tirmee trimmer body ; Much to my embarrassment, he
withoutover-crowded J wore old shirts — so old, so frayed
” — fitness clubs or miracle f «that ring around the collar would
s-diets. You can accomplish fh have been impossible,

in a few months what could He wore pants, the widest beil-
take over a year to dupli- B bottoms he could find, which was
h cate in a gym. Our meth- = okay because they were the style —-
la ods are proven by thou- but he-wore them ankle high for

sands of satisfled cus- A
| tomers and we offer a fear of flooding, I guess.

free session for any

OF
SLIMMING
IS BACK

dingerie ° Hosiery

he ladies who are - PLAID
Sportswear 4 interested. Like a mantra. 1 repeated
Annee a : “ ; i ike a mantra, I repeated over
Accessories, a : “ : and over, ‘Richard, dear, real

men don’t wear plaid .... with
stripes and polka dots.’’

I knew I had a tremendous
challenge on my hands, so I began
discreetly, carefully, to change his

’ fashion foibles.

| would leave men’s fashion
magazines lying about on the cof-
fee table, open at articles titled
‘Can You Tell A Man How To
Dress?’ and ‘A Man’s Guide To
Dressing Well’.

Then | became more aggressive.
As soon as I had any reason at all
— I think it was Ground Hog’s
Day — I gave him a designer shirt .
and matching tie. :

“Oh, look at that gorgeous grey
suit so-and-so has on,’* Pd say
with.a nudge. ‘‘Wouldn’t you look
good in that?”’

COLOR LESSONS

} started dragging him through
every men’s store and mall, and
gave him basic lessons on color
coordination. .

“No,’’ I would sigh, when ‘he

- would pull some things off the
rack and hold them proudly
against himself with a hopeful look
on his face. ‘‘Beige on bGeige on

beige — how borrriiianng!”’ or,
“The orange shirt with red pants?
No way!”

I became desperate. { raided his
closet, throwing his polyester pants
to the pigeons. I tried to unravel
the mystery of why his favorite
sweater had to be the shoddiest—
you know, the one with the moth
holes in the sleeve and stretched
out of shape on one side. I gave up
and gave it away.

inquire about our &
Bed Fashion Show |.

CATCHING ON

Slowly, though, he caught on.
He began buying shirts in
sophisticated, subtle shades. He
even. ventured forth to pick out
matching ties — without my bein
there! .

And when he purchased two
suits with co-ordinating shirts, ties
and socks, I really thought he was

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