The Wilmington Morning Star

Clothes Men Like' Star In Spring Collection Of Ace Hollywood Designer

By NEA Service Staff Correspondent

HOLLYWOOD, Jan. 18.--Monica, that titian-haired young designer who makes headline fashion news out in these parts, has done it again. She is celebrating her first year of designing with a collection of spring styles which are not only outstanding among wholesale offerings on the west coast, but hold their own with eastern fashions, too.

Monica's new collection is markedly feminine--the sort of styles that men like, admire aloud, and that women pine for audibly. In a year where fabric shortages are on every breath where WPB rules have set the silhouette, Monica has given further proof of her ingenuity.

Her day and dinner dresses are well within regulations, she even anticipated them last year when she presented her first group of models, after quitting custom designing for Hollywood's stars in favor of creating for the greater and, to her, more important American public.

The materials she is using are mainly imported--or the better products of our own mills. Most are confined to her use--you won't find them elsewhere. Her colors, too, are her very own. She mixes them on her palette and has them dyed to order. Beiges, eggshells, neutrals are tints she is especially sponsoring. She accents these by other tones.

Her prints--all her very own designs translated to cloth--have a flair seldom found in prints. They combine imagination and that other quality so rare in prints, patterns that will never weary you. Whether she is playing with a Grecian theme on a grand scale or a tiny motif from the Old French or a Chinese notion, the individuality is outstanding.

Monica's suits, as always, bear the mark of superb tailoring--the custom-made look. They are softer, this year, more dressmaker in line. They sport soft ruffled gilets, unusual fastenings.

Faced with the same shortage in buttons, slide fasteners and snaps as are other fashionists, Monica has evolved new ways of closing skirts, fitting dresses close with ties of self or contrasting materials.

Her wraparounds stay wrapped around--no gaping for them. Her newest newsworthy buttons are unbreakable ceramics, made in California just for Monica, in her own colors and shapes.