MEXICAN GIRLS TAKE TO FADS
Custom Bumped as They Bob Their Tresses
Latest in American Style What They Demand
Factory Workers in Line as They Follow Sisters
BY NORMAN WALKER
[EXCLUSIVE DISPATCH]
EL PASO, Tex. Aug. 23.—Senoritas in the south of Mexico may protest against bobbed hair as a national crime against the crowning glory of Mexican women, Chapultepec cadets may haze and continue to butcher the hair of the colorado claro bobbees of Mexico City, and old folks may write long pieces to the Mexican papers against it, but the Mexican girls on the border have welcomed the boyish bob with the same enthusiasm they accept each new angle of what they call "estilo Americano" (American style.)
The net result of this following after the wand of Dame Fashion on the part of the girls of the north is the changing of a race of sad-faced Madonnas with long, flowing hair and a look of patient suffering in their faces, to a new generation. In the hotels and on the streets Mexican girls with bobbed hair are to be seen on every hand.
CONVENTION DEFIED
As if to defy all convention as decreed in Mexico, where to go with the head uncovered is approaching a sin, the Mexican girls appear on the streets with their hair bobbed, their lips painted and their faces powdered, with no more head covering than nature gave them. The mantilla and the black rebosa, which have been the conventional head covering of all Spanish-speaking women for centuries, is seen only on the older women, or at bullfights, where the young girls wear high combs, white mantillas and period costumes of their feminine ancestors.
If there is anything a Mexican girl apparently enjoys more than anything else, it is to be in the mode, or maybe a little ahead of it. That is why the border Mexican girls took to the flea-hop sandals, sleeveless dresses and hair cuts. Let some American girl return from the Los Angeles beaches or from school in the East with some new style and it will be no longer than the shops catering to the better class of Mexican trade can stock the novelty that every Mexican girl who can afford it will appear on the streets sporting the newest fad.
They took to the brightly colored walking sticks like a canary does to lettuce. Even the one-piece swimming suits found enthusiastic wearers among the Spanish-speaking girls, although these same girls had a little difficulty when the municipal pools first opened to keep their make-up on until they were tipped off at the beauty shops about waterproof cosmetics.
SERVANTS IN SWIM
Servant girls in homes on the North Side copy their patrons and wear the same kind of clothes, which they buy in the cheaper places. Or, better still, inherit the mistress' dresses as soon as she tires of them. The merchants who cater to these girls are as keen to know what the latest styles are as are the more exclusive shops further downtown. They buy cheaper quality goods, but shoes, gowns, hats and accessories must be in the prevailing style else they will not sell.
One local publishing plant employs a large number of Mexican girls in the bindery department. When they come to work in the morning they resemble a bevy of boarding-school girls from the most exclusive homes. Silk stockings, beaded crepe dresses, high-heeled satin slippers and chic hats are the rule. But they do not work in this finery. In the dressing room, they have aprons, cotton hose, old and comfortable shoes. But let the bell ring for 5 o'clock quitting and the girls trip out in their finery, laughing, joking and happy in the knowledge that they are as well dressed as anyone on the street.
The old order changeth, even in Mexico, and feminine Mexican youth will be served.