Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • 123

THE HARTFORD COURANT: Sunday, March 30, 1980 Custom-Made Clothes Not Just for the Wealthy AT WIT'S END The Athletic Body Solution 3E in approval, they were so impressed I almost felt guilty. That's the way things are in this country. Athletes are royalty. Could a non-athletic civilian climb into a yellow elastic suit that makes your legs look like a nuclear power station and bend over? Absolutely not, but a speed skater can get away with it. Could a regular person wear a short T-shirt over upper arms the size of a basketball? Of course not, but Pete Rose can.

Sports is an equalizer for every physical flaw you can think of. Imagine someone kicking sand in the face of gymnast Nadia Comaneci and yelling, nVeah, Skinny!" Or playing it cute with towering Bill Russell and saying, "Tell me when it rains up there." For all of you who have ever had to live with a less-than-perfect body, my idea is worth a shot. You have a few teeth missing? Tell the idle curious you play hockey for a living; They'll love you for it. I saw the first bathing suit of the year on display the other day at a local department store and tried it on. As the salesperson peeked into the room I said, "I'm on a weightlifting scholarship at the gym." She said, "I already figured that out." -rr i I -3 SiSIS ymim.

IW Ilill I IPlli Afilflfi I. Mil: iiiiiliilBii. ww iifiiiiBp0! cillliBi? ilillllf in inn called Antique Sheique. Dolores Lawler said the name reflects what she and partner Diane Smith want to do in their work recycle antique or vintage pieces in new clothes. They stress creativity and like to make what's "in" but different, they said.

As is the case with Kazaz, the women will pre-wash unusual fabrics they acquire. Kathy Hull of Guilford recently brought an old lace dress that was once owned by her mother-in-law to the shop. It was about to be thrown out in an old suitcase, Mrs. Hull said. It took a lot of delicate work, tut the women removed the old lining and replaced it with new poly-satin char-meuse so that Mrs.

Hull could wear the dress. They charged $150. The lace, they said, is worn about $300. Rosalie Moynihan of South Windsor visited Antique Sheique for some new clothes. She got a hand-painted poly-silk wrap blouse for $50, a cotton off-white chenille jacket for $65, and a raspberry polyester poplin double-breasted suit with a striped poly-silk blouse for $200.

She said she has to control the urge to have the women whip up more clothes for herself. "It's very ego-building," Ms. Moynihan remarked about having custom-made clothes. When she wore her raspberry suit to New York, it drew looks and compliments all day, she said. Mrs.

Smith and Mrs. Lawler said they use a modified custom-made procedure to try to keep prices down. Customer make one visit to discuss ideas and have their measurements taken and then don't return until the garment is made up. At that time, if alterations are needed, the customer pays extra. This allows the garments to be made for less by eliminating the fittings, they said.

Like the other designers, they like to have a say in what a customer chooses. After making a black dress for one overweight woman, Mrs. Lawler said, she urged the woman to come back for an outfit that had color. "We like to have them have the confidence in us" said Mrs. Smith.

The women opened their shop in the basement of the Olde Sadd Library Building last fall. Mrs. Lawler had been doing dressmaking at home for 10 years. Mrs. Smith has a background in art.

It's not unusual that they aren't making any salary because the money that comes in is re-invested in fabrics. Continued From Page IE silk blend, a $145 fake fur jacket and a $30 "poly-silk" blouse. Poly-silk is a polyester fabric with the look of natural silk. The Middletown nurse said the items cost namore than what she may i have naid at a store "When you walk out, the outfit really fits you," said the 5-foot-9 woman, who said she has trouble finding sleeves long enough for her. A former sewer herself, Miss Prete said she is disappointed with the work- manship found in some store-bought items.

Because I sewed, I really ap- predate the fact that the seams are -finished (in the custom-made garments)," she said. "It's just the little special things." Miss Prete said customers can bring a photograph to the women and they'll comment. And that's fun, to have that opportunity to say 'Ah, you're right that won't look good on she said. I Her black suit, she said, was adapted from a $350 version advertised by Saks Fifth Avenue. Ms.

Sebula and Ms. Zienowicz said that they will never make the same article twice. They keep files on each customer with swatches of their fabric and spare buttons. The women consider buttons a crucial element in a garment and scour flea markets for jarsf ul. "A button can make or break an outfit," Ms.

Sebula When traveling together, the first stop the women make in any city is a fabric stores to make purchases for the business. Ms. Zienowicz must trav- el for her part-time job for a fragrance company. Conveniently, she is able to hire Ms. Sebula as her model.

With an eye for knowing of the potential of unusual yard goods, the women choose fine fabrics, including drapery fabrics that they can use right side out or inside out. Ms. Sebula, who said she has sewn for about 10 years, is a former pharmacist, Ms. Ziencowicz, a self-de- scribed "jack of all trades," said she sewed at home for about 20 years before opening Kazaz. She said she learned a lot of what she knows from her grandmother, who could look at something and then make the same thing.

In South Windsor, two other women are the proprietors of a basement shop BEFORE YOU By ERMA BOMBECK For years, a group of us who exercise three times a week have been considering staging a telethon for muscular legs. We contend we are the most misunderstood minority group in the country and are given no thought whatsoever by designers of slacks, boot manufacturers, pantyhose makers or the wraparound skirt people. The general public, in their ignorance and naivete, seem to feel you can make your legs smaller through diet and exercise. Be still, my heart! I believe we have a solution. It came to me as I watched the winter Olympics last month.

We were all watching in silent admiration as Eric Heiden skated around the track, his body doubled over like a collapsible tray table. Then I heard, "Hey, Mom, he's got legs like yours." I was numb at first. Then I began to smile. A couple of weeks after that when someone said, "Isn't that skirt a little tight around the thighs?" I said, "Of course. I'm a speed skater in training for the U.S.

Olympic speed skating team. I hope in four years to increase my thighs by at least another four to six inches the strength, you know." My would-be critics not only smiled Gimme Curl, Sale 19.88 Reg. $25 An acid balanced perm by neiene Curtis with conditioning formulas for every hair type. UnlPerm, 23.88 Reg. $30 Natural looking, long lasting perm with conditioner.

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BUY Everyone wants to pay less. And, like the French of Napoleon's time, they can soon persuade themselves chicory is a good addition to coffee, and a patriotic saver of family money. What is perhaps questionable is the manner of promoting this additive as better, mellower and finer than the basic product true coffee. PRINTED PATTERN A553 1014-2014 Curved Collar Flatters Face With a curve collar as graceful as this one, you don't need any jewelry. It has the same flattering effect as pearls close to the face or soft lighting.

Marek shapes printed pattern A553T slenderly with easy Mousing at an elastic waist. Perfect for half-sizes the emphasis is totally on making you look taller, narrower. For summer, choose prints or solid color cotton blends, knits, linen, crepe, chiffon sheers. Printed pattern A553 is available in half sizes 10tt-20tt. Size Wk (bust 37) requires 3 yards 45-inch fabric.

Please send $2 for each pattern to The Hartford Courant, Pattern Department, P.O. Box 59, Old Chelsea Station, New York, N.Y. 10011. (Add 50 for each pattern for first class airmail and special handling.) Print plainly YOUR NAME, ADDRESS, ZIP, STYLE NUMBER, SIZE. ISP? I i 4 1 1 1 t- i f'i 1 1 a i.

1 h- i 1 1 'S- I I I 1 1 By MARGARET DANA A reader recently asked me about the new advertising claims for. cold and hot drinks now being promoted. "What on earth will they think of next to use in making one of these drinks? Why can't they leave coffee alone and stop doing tricks with it?" It is a point worth noting and inquiring into before the "drink business" runs entirely wild. Actually that last word can be taken literally, for many of the new ingredients or additives are just that wild plants or flowers, etc. But with the increases in coffee lovers are tempted to try some of the new drinks which claim they are better than coffee, even though coffee is the basic imgredient.

Another reader sent me a packet of instant coffee labeled, "Instant Coffee, Mellowed with Chicory." She asked: "Would you please comment on the caf-! eine content in the new chicory-coffee products now on the market? How do they compare with Sanka or a full true coffee product? Is there less caffeine in the brand which contains chicory?" The instant coffee which has been I "mellowed" with chicory has had no caffeine removed, Sanka has had most of it removed, and the full coffee prod-uct has had nothing at all added or re-' moved. As one coffee specialist says, true coffee lovers eschew all additives, in- eluding sometimes even sugar and cream, but coffee drinkers in various parts of the world like to add a variety of things according to local custom and folklore. Chicory, a weed, has roots that are dried and roasted to add to a coffee beverage for some people. There are also those who grew up on a local drink called "chicoria," believing it to be a kind of true coffee. And apparently because coffee was hard to import during their war with Great Britain, Napoleon urged his French countrymen to stretch their coffee with chicory as a patriotic move.

Being a proud people, they began to insist they liked it best that way, and have insisted since that their chicory-coffee blend makes the best coffee. You will find this attitude in other places, especially if there is a French; Kpulation, such as in Canada and in uisiana. But frankly, chicory is bitter and harsh. It is not a form of coffee. However, it is much cheaper than coffee, and when coffee prices jumped upward here, some processors began to add chicory to keep the price of "coffee" down.

This is being adopted by even some of our most reputable However, as our coffee expert friend reminds us, the reaction of people to chicory depends on the subjective taste of the drinker, and the powerfulness of the roaster's advertising: There is certainly nothing wrong with a processor's adding to or removing various ingredients from coffee. AVON MANCHESTER BRISTOL SUNDAY A 20 Off Revive and refresh your tired, worn furniture. Recover it With softest velvet, practical nylon or a durable, textured fabric. Choose from our beautiful selection of mix and match solids tweeds, prints, plaids and more. Labor extra.

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