Hide Article Text (OCR)
Martha Mitchell Jed upBy IsABFI.I.K MALLWASHINGTON 11-7*1. Mar tha Beale Mitchell loaned against a grand piano in her wedgewood blue and gold living room and annoumed that sIk* is fed up no, not with those “very 11hera | Conwnttr11st ’' dem n11dr.11lot , but with American fashion designers.“The style industry has killed itself, it has really missed thebe|,” she said. “If they want to promote styles and fashion, they should see to it that a woman • no matter what, her age or figure — looks well.”“I’m not going to buy clothes just because someone dictates to me that I should have a mini or maxi or a midi.“Why ii it that American women do not sit and analyze themselves and try to dress according to their needs? You can take a heavy set woman and dress her fashionably.“A person with style can look better in a $15 dress than a$1,000 one.”The wife of Attorney General John V Mitchell was at her quotable best, even when the interview was granted only for a discussion of fashions, “my favorite subject.”Under the ground rules, there was no mention of her headtine making views on antiwar protesters, supreme court norm nees and other politically sensi tive issues.The blonde beauty from Pine Bluff. Ark., looked as appealing as an ire crcwn, soda in the pale pink taffeta and white lace dress she had dug out of a clos et for the occasion. It was amidi,, but Martha Mitchell made clear in her inimitably mdc endent way that no one had dictated her choice.“I bought it three years ago when they tried to lower hems and have never worn it,” she said. “When they tried to bring back longer dresses, I went out and bought a whole lot of clothes and they're all in box es.”In tlie past few years, she has Usually kept her dresses junf above the knee when, in herwords, skirts “went up and up and up until there was ro end to the up business.”Now, with couturiers d^clar ing that hemlines must lunge to mid calf or longer and some women wondering whether they should junk their entire ward robes, Mrs. Mitchell is defiant.”1 think ids is a very poor time as far as the economy is concerned to try to push a new style of the countryBesides, she said, “most of the the country despise styles .. . ,men in the country despise sty les. . .What about her husband?“He likes anything I wear,” she saidAbout this time, the pipe-smnktng attorney general came .home- from, worfc to 'their elegant two story condominium in the exclusive Watergate Apart ments on the Potomac“What’s that you’re wear ing?” he asked.“It’s a midi,” she said with a laugh.“Oh,” he said, deadpan. !thought you had your nightgown on.”Upstairs, in their pink, garnet red and blue txdroom, Mrs. Mitchell opened her closetsOne held her evening gowns .oid matching shoes tor winter. Another Was full of afternoon and short cocktail dresses and nits with dv* s, another eon tamed “other dress# * “ One was just for handbags, and an other just for shoesMrs Mitchell likes shneShe has easily more than 100 pairs, and most. If not all of them arc shnghack high heels, the ones with a strap around the heel They ar** the only kind she wears, even though “they went out of style years ago ” When she can’t find any in the stores, she has them made.“I have always loved' sling back shoes,” she- said. “1 used to model shoes and the shoe people used to tell me, ’always wear a shnghack.’ I have a small foot, and they look best ”A hall closet upstairs held nothing but coats, including, a stunning white broadtail with mink niffs that “1 designed my self” and another in ermine which “John gave me, I forget what for ”Mrs Mitchell doesn’t buyAmerican. French or otherwise She relies primarily on Katie Holmes, who “runs a little shop in R\ f\ N Y ,” and takes her to the wholesale dress markets in Manhattan for her clothes.An avid reader of Women’s Wear Daily — “I pick it up first flung after the New York Daily News” — she doesn’t miss athing in the fashion world.Noting the high style* that the Wife rrf French P r e s i d « n t Georges Pompidou wore during their U S visit to show off her country’s designer*, Mrs M-teh ell said“1 do believe that American women in public life would 'be much freer in giving plugs to designers here if the dsigners helped dress the women in public The women I talk to are more interested in plugging the si ore they bough’ it in rather than the designer,”Asked whether Washington women dres* better than New Yorkers. Mrs. Mitchell ftioie Washington without hesitation.“There is more dignity and less free style here Dignity and formality have completely gone from- New York...”But I don’t think the re’s any place in the country that partic ularly outshines another one. It used to he you could see *9 per cent of the women on Park Av e n u e and see them well groomed. But today, with ‘mod’ or hippie’ or whatever you call it, there’s absolutely no style,“A woman goes out and buys a dress because it’s a name* dress or because a saleslady tells her it looks well is ndicu lous.When I think of the people in Arkansas, there are as many well dressed people, if not better dressed and even higherstyle . . . they take pride, even mow pride, and thry’vc never been given credit for it.”mire filialVRosenberg,Mazin rites in Israeeasy-onclothesOffMai tha I’cali* Mitchell is fed up - no, not with those' hAmerican fashion designers.
Newspaper Details
Levittown Courier Times
Levittown, Pennsylvania, US
Tue, Mar 24, 1970
Page 13
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 05 Jun 2025
Other Publications Near Levittown, Pennsylvania
Levittown Courier Times
Levittown Times
Bucks County Times
Bucks County Courier Times
