The Best Of A Good Lot

While winter had most of the outdoors tightly under wraps, spring was coming to life indoors—in the workrooms of the designers of America's sportswear. And, working closely with them, the editors of SPORTING LOOK have made a selection of the best they have to offer for sale in the new season. The biggest item of news, one evident in every showroom and demonstrated on each of the following 15 pages of this preview of spring fashion, is the re-emphasis by all of the designers on the simple good looks and good taste for which American sportswear first became famous.

Look at the golf clothes, set here against the background of the Bing Crosby Pro-Amateur tournament at Pebble Beach. They are still colorful, but the garish combinations of gaudy colors that for a time beguiled the pros and influenced those amateurs who emulate them have given way to the well-bred look. The sloppy, low-buttoning, bell-sleeve cardigan, for instance, appears to be losing out to the neatly fitting knit pullover.

For the spectator, there is a return this year to an old favorite—Scottish checks, that range from traditional hound's-tooth and shepherd patterns to the more complex district checks, such as the Glenurquhart.

College students take their Easter vacations by the sea in such droves these days that Designer Rose Marie Reid has created two new bathing suits especially for College Week. While their long-legged look may remind old-grad girl watchers of Annette Kellerman, the college men haven't got a beef—they started it all themselves.

For more news of spring—a new short cut to raincoats and a look at the 30-year-old design that has swept the chemise and the trapeze into oblivion—turn the page.

At the Crosby, Sam and Jan Curry watch the play. Sam's 19th-hole blazer is in the green of the Augusta National ($65, Rogers Peet: J. W. Robinson). His white slacks are a wash-and-wear blend of Orion and rayon ($13, Palm Beach: Rogers Peet). Jan exemplifies the coordinated look: hand-knit cabled cardigan ($35, Crown Colony); matching Dacron-cotton blouse ($10, McMullen); plaid wool shorts ($23, Robert Powell Johns) that match her golf bag ($50, Atlantic Products). All at J. P. Allen, Dayton Co., Gidding's, Halle Bros., Lord & Taylor, Maison Mendessolle.

Poised with shooting-stick umbrella (Littler's, Del Monte), Jan Curry follows tournament in a sleeveless cardigan of Orion ($15, John Weitz for Shelley: B. Altman, Meier & Frank, Neiman-Marcus) over tailored cotton shirt ($3, Ship 'n Shore: B. Altman) and new foulard-printed wool challis shorts ($24.50, Gutstein-Tuck: George Stinchfield, Outdoor Traders).

At Cypress Point, Pal Melchior wears knit pullover ($18, Gino Paoli: Amelia Gray, Neiman-Marcus), golf shorts of Dacron-cotton poplin ($13, Evan-Picone: Lord & Taylor, Meier & Frank, Neiman-Marcus). Adolph Yturralde's shirt is alpaca ($30, Bernhard Altmann: Whitehouse & Hardy); his slacks are linen ($22.50, Daks: Jerry Rothschild's, Saks Fifth Avenue, James K. Wilson).

Lambretta's new Surrey ($1,290) speeds a foursome along Monterey's 17-Mile Drive. The ladies wear above-knee skirts of Arnel flannel, attached to shorts ($18); shirts are Ban-Lon ($10, all Ricci for Haymaker: Best's, I. Magnin, Neiman-Marcus). Sam Curry's pullover is wool ($15, Rogers Peet). His Dacron-cotton slacks ($18) and Adolph Yturralde's cotton shirt ($9) and Arnel slacks ($18) are all by Izod (Bullock's' Pasadena and Santa Ana, DePinna, Giddings). Sam's shoes are Etonics ($37.50); Pat Melchior's, Spalding ($14).

New decorum decreed for the golfer