(See Cover)
"Be like every American girl—be simple," urged Paris Dressmaker Jean Desses last summer, when his favorite customer announced that she was planning a trip to the U.S. and needed some new things to wear. The Queen of Greece, the pert, petite lady to whom he spoke, seized on the good advice. She had only one royal admonition to offer. "I have a tiny waist,"* she said, "and I want to show it."
Thus agreed in principle, Dressmaker Desses and his customer, Frederika, Queen of the Hellenes, got together last week in Paris for the final fittings of the wardrobe which the Greek Queen is taking aboard the liner United States for her first visit to the U.S. next week. It was. as Desses had promised, simple. After long consultation with the head men in the Greek treasury (who had only $5,700 to spend), the dressmaker had cut his original specifications from 22 to 15 new garments, but he obligingly helped make over some of the Queen's old things, and even agreed to lend her a fur coat. After all, Desses is of Greek descent himself, as well as an old friend of the Queen. The final collection included a dozen hats and a dozen pairs of shoes, but Desses was far from pleased with the meager turnout. "I just don't know how she'll manage," he sighed.
The pessimism was misplaced. Ever since the days of another Balkan Queen, Marie of Rumania, storming the sentimental citadel of U.S. republicanism has become a required skill for European monarchs. Americans, denying themselves the luxury of a monarch of their own, usually capitulate to visiting crowned heads without even a faint show of resistance. In addition, 36-year-old Frederika of Greece and her handsome husband, King Paul, have already captured an impressive array of U.S. hostages in their homeland.
It is reasonable to suppose that, by the end of a Washington week protocol-heavy with presidential banquets, reviews, wreath-layings and graceful speeches, their conquest of the U.S. capital will be complete. In fact, a healthy respect for the charms of the invaders went into the timing of their invitation: they were invited to make their visit after the foreign aid bill had been passed and while Congress was not in session, for fear that somehow Frederika might beguile the lawmakers into giving Greece more than its share.
Down the Line. The spearhead of next week's invasion will be the lady. Amiable and easygoing, King Paul is as strapping (6 ft. 3 in.) a monarch as any society matron could wish for. Frederika, his 5-ft. 3-in. Queen, whose trim figure and impudent face are topped by an unruly mop of chestnut curls, was once described (to her face) by a U.S. Congressman in his cups as "the cutest little Queenie I ever saw."