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Reporters from coast to coast swarmed into the streets to interview well-rounded young women. They were scornful and suspicious. "Any girl who goes for this flat look should have her chest examined," said one. Headline writers plugged away: DIOR'S FLAT PROPOSALS LIKELY TO ESTRANGE BOSOM FRIENDS; DIOR WILL NEVER CRUSH U.S. WOMANHOOD; FILM BEAUTIES FIT TO BUST AT DIOR DEFLATION POLICY.
Brainwashing. But designers were not so certain that the defiance would hold up. At the very least, what had been artificially cinched up and built out would henceforth be slacked off and subdued, they guessed. Pope Benedict had denounced the 1920 look as indecent. Last week the worry seemed to be that it was so decent that it might affect the birth rate. Despite worry, protest and outright defiance, the ladies would probably do just as they were told. They always had. Designers developed their own brand of brainwashing long ago, and they know just how to go about it.