Foreign News: Tahitian Irony

Socialite women on the French Riviera had the brilliant idea last winter of dressing for the beach in flowered brassieres and wrap-around shorts, supposedly copied from the modest, knee-length pareu that Tahitian women wear. Last week U. S. manufacturers were plugging "Tahitian pareos" for the Florida socialite trade. But by a cruel irony, in Tahiti itself, biggest of the French Society Islands Tahitian women were forbidden to wear indecent pareus. Instead they were supposed to wear imported French cotton dresses.

Romance is the chief advertised product of Tahiti. According to French tourist agencies, Tahiti, "Pearl of the Pacific," has everything Hawaii has,...

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