Special Wardrobe for the Gentlewoman Golfer
Women golfers have been discovering Bill Atkinson, a sports-minded sportswear designer, just about as fast as he has been discovering them. Last spring, as the golfing season was getting into full swing, Atkinson-designed shorts and jackets, several of which were featured in the pages of this magazine (SI, March 25, 1957), disappeared from stores as fast as they arrived.
This year Atkinson, winner of the Designer of the Year award in 1957, has worked with SPORTS ILLUSTRATED on a special spring collection devoted entirely to the ladies of the greensward. On these pages is his "Fairways" collection, previewed by golfers in Dallas and Houston, where golf is a year-round preoccupation. The group has an eyebrow-raiser in a pair of tattersall knickers (opposite), made of a new Zelanized (water-repellent) Galey & Lord fabric which typifies new materials developed for heavy-duty sportswear. A matching golf hat keeps sun out of the eyes and rain off the back of the neck, and colored knee hose give the ensemble an appropriately finished look. The clothes can be purchased at the following stores: Lord & Taylor, I. Magnin Co., Neiman-Marcus Co., Goldwater's, Kaufmann's, Marshall Field, Burdine's, J. L. Hudson.
At Brook Hollow Golf Club, Dallas are Mrs. Jack Munger (left) in blue poplin jacket with zippered pockets ($15), slim skirt ($15); Mrs. Thomas W. Blake Jr. (opposite) in knickers ($13), Oxford shirt ($10), hat ($5); and Mrs. J. E. R. Chilton Jr. in willow jacket ($15), matching Bermuda shorts ($15).
Crisp as practice chip shots are the crease-resistant oxford shirt ($9) and foulard-printed skirt ($13) worn by Mrs. Louis Pearce Jr. at River Oaks. The matching blue-green knee socks are fine English rib knit (Mavis, $1.25).
A Houston sportswoman and president of River Oaks Women's Golf Assn., Mrs. Duke Selig wears golf slacks ($17) and jacket ($15) of crease-resistant poplin with oxford shirt ($9). She likes outfit for Texas hunting too.
Back view of the golf pants opposite shows the pockets which are copied from men's golf slacks. Flat paraphernalia such as tees, pencils, score cards can be unobtrusively stowed away here. The fabric, called tournament cloth (J. P. Stevens), is crease-resistant.
Golfers requested a pocket, one deep enough to hold eyeglasses and cigarets, in the knitted shirts which they favor for their stay-in-place qualities. This one, of knitted stripe ($8), has a stitched-down envelope flap to keep contents from falling out.
To remind ladies of their tradition in the field, and right to the tee, even on Saturdays and Sundays, a printed fabric depicting women golfers of 1890 is made into a shirt ($12). Ruth Chilton wears it with color-coordinated tournament cloth shorts.
PHOTO
RICHARD MEEK
Bill Atkinson
SEVEN PHOTOS
RICHARD MEEK