Transvestia

John Weitz, who has put the American man's casual look into European stores, was summoned on his last trip to Europe for a serious conference on the subject. He was asked by one of the large fabric companies to do some serious research on the subject from a thermal point of view.

"Of course, skirts are totally unacceptable in the framework of today's fashions," says John Weitz, "but men would certainly be warmer and healthier wearing them. Skirts are incredibly more efficient. I never could see why women want to wear pants." He gives skirts for men about 20 years to come true.

Bill Blass doesn't blanch at the idea either. He's designing a collection of men's fashions for fall. "I can't tell any more, but I may have a few surprises myself," he says.

Right now, the problem for Elizabeth Hawes isn't criticism, but how to get the skirts made right. She took her sketches to a men's wear man- ufacturer with a reputation for being far out. "His idea for far out was narrower lapels," snorts Hawes.

Another manufacturer was willing to make the skirts if he could put them into his women's line later.

Hawes is fighting mad. She'll show these skirts if they have to be made in her own workroom or run up on her own sewing machine. There won't be just one skirt at the Brooklyn Museum in the show she shares with Rudi Gernreich, but five or six diff- erent styles of skirts for men.

She may even go on and make a whole collection. "I'm convinced the time has come," " she says.

It begins to look, doesn't it, as if there had been a basic misunderstanding. Men are born for skirts and women for pants.

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