Washington ‘Cats’ Dress Fit to Kill, Manage Only to Stun Their Elders Schools Curb Garb, But After Classes – Crazy Man, Crazy The Star, prompted by queries from puzzled adults on recent aberrations in the dress of younger contemporaries, highlighted by addiction to blue jeans, sent a reporter and a photographer to investigate the situation. They found that –individual idiosyncrasies aside-a real canon of style for young people exist only among those known as “cats”.  A “Cat” is a boy or girl of high school age who knows and cares a great deal about Jazz music, dancing, cloths and the society of other “cats”. This is a look at the high points of their style. By Harry Bacas What clothes does a good cat ware? When a pair of cats goes out to a “semi-formal” dance the boy will probably climb into a pink shirt, black knit tie and a charcoal flannel suit so narrow and tailored he looks like a student at an Ivy ledge college. And his date may be gowned like Rosemary Clooney making a Las Vegas nightclub appearance. In school the students are hardly distinguishable one from another. School restrictions against certain garments, such as blue jeans, plus a desire to keep the finery in good shape for evening, leads most cats to ware a sort of uniform during school hours. The boys ware sports shirts, sweaters and slacks of some kind to school.  The girls ware sweaters, skirts, bobby sox and loafer shoes. Almost nobody wears a hat. But it’s between these extremes of school and dances that Washington’s cats really blossom into a style of dress all their own. Jackets are Popular. For example the girls may discard their usual long, droopy coats, which sweep to within 6 to 8 inches of the ground, in favor of shiny white zipper jackets, made not of leather but of soft plastic. The boys may counter with their own black Horsehide “motorcycle” Jackets, tight at the waist and cuffs, studded with silver or nickel ornaments.        Either may wear at the neck a floppy string tie, usually black, which goes by the name of “Senator Bow”, “Kentucky Colonel” or just “String Tie”. For boys only are cut-down black jackboots, called “Engineer Boots”. These come just above the ankle:  have a buckle at the top and across the instep and are often decorated with ornate metal studs. No legitimate “engineer” would be caught dead in them. Also for boys are “Peg Pants”, which in one version or another have survived through generations of style changes. A typical peg is formed by cutting down a regular 18-inch trouser cuff to 15 inches and sharply tapering the pants leg to fit into it. A good peg is so tight the pants cannot be pulled on over the shoes. Dirty Buck in Vogue. Girl’s shoes are usually low-cut, lace less moccasins, worn over thick white bobby sox. Recent entries in the footwear field, however, include dirty white buckskins and knee-high woolen stockings. Boys and girls both ware “Team Jackets”.  These are made of either satin or wool, have stripes down the sleeves and knit cuffs and waists. They are derived from a garment originally designed for athletes, The T-shirt is a male garment. Boys ware it under a V-necked sweater in place of a shirt. A new model, the turtleneck T-shirt, is sometimes seen rising high inside the collar of a sports shirt.   The most popular theme of all – on which boys and girls alike play many variations.  – Are blue jeans? Blue jeans are either of conventional cut or of the Western style, which is short in the seat, narrow in the legs, tight around the hips and generally gives the effect of a cowpuncher whose pants are falling down. Fought By Schools. Modifications of the basic blue jeans include plaid cuffs, leather edged pockets, copper riveting, red glass reflectors, silver studs and a fit so tight that no belt is needed. Blue Jeans are not quite comme il faut for formal occasions and have been banned by many area high schools, but anywhere else both girls and boys love to ware them. They are so popular with the high school set that principals of some schools had trouble at first making their prohibition against them stick. At Wheaton High School one day last October, 51 students were sent home to change their tight blue jeans. They had insisted on wearing them even though a school wide ban had been previously announced. A principle, which almost all good cats follow in choosing their costumes, is to be colorful with out being extravagant. For example, a very few indeed would wear what one boy was seen in a few days ago on a Washington street – black shirt, bright orange corduroy trousers, pink belt tucked into hideaway pleats, black and pink argyle socks and blue suede moccasins with pink soles. That would be “Too Much”.

It's that western style