FASHION NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 307, 27 December 1924, Page 22

FASHION NOTES.

(By An EXPERT.)

PARIS, September 3. Women are dressing well (writes our correspondent), and in all the new styles. Last season's fashion lady has given place to her successor o£ this season. A man may look on his new love, ami still remember his old one, for styles have nut changed so niuoh as they have matured. One sees the same long waist line slightly drawn hi, a slim skirt, but a little shorter ami a little tighter, and as the skirl has shortened the decolU'tnge has risen, thereby covering what before was uncovered, and so suggesting that the year 11124 has brought with it modesty and discretion. Even bobbed hair is less obviously bobbed. Some women have let it grow behind, others are allowing it to grow altogether. The new sleeves, hung and draped in so many Mays, have given to Fashion's new lady a grace she would do well to cherish. For women looked well last season in the scanty clothing which fashion dealt out to them. We shall soon be buying our clothes for the coming season, and of course every woman wishes to choose the frock that* will suit her own individual style. Although I am a writer of the modes, {•''would never advise any woman to follow them too closely. 1 have known a woman who chose to be sans jianiers, when paniers were the mode, and, having adopted a beautiful period costume of the Louis XVI. order, was quite content to have her frocks made after the same model for years. It was a good model, dignified, and lending itself to richness of detail in material and trimming, and she went to one of the best dressmakers on this earth to have it made. She was never in the fashion, but never out of it. She had the long, slim figure and upright carriage which gives anything worn with authority an air of style, so she always commanded interest and attention. Fashion does not always require a heavy purer to dip in. A woman may lie poor and yet have good taste. She will instinctively choose what is most suitable in colour and design, in line and technique. Another may be rich enough to go to the Rue de la Pa is eouturieres, and those of the Place Vendome, and, in spite of good advice from headquarters, may choose the wrong thing, and wear it badly, so that her fine clothes are the envy of no one, which is fatal as a condition of fine clothes. To be well dressed, a woman must have at least a natural love for clothes. She must take an i.itprcst in accessories. Beside the dress which is proper (in the sense of being well adapted) and beeomins. she must choose the shoe that fits the occasion ' as nicely as it does the foot, the stocking that fits the shoe, the glove that is neither too light nor too dark, the hat whose shape is in right relation to the lines and character of both the costume and its wearer. Perhaps there will be an opportunity for that spot of perfect colour, either in accord or contrast, which a sincrle flower can give. Then, having collected the material for apparel, she must know how to put it on and wear it. Never overdress—that is a good axiom. No matter how much you may love brilliant hues and tints, ] would implore you never to be seduced into wearing them on unbefitting occasions. The Question of Colour. Never, dear readers, be induced to chooso a colour merely for fashion's sake. No great connoisseur in dress woujd ever persuade a woman to wear the wrong shade because it happened to be "the latest." A knowledge of colour is useful to a woman in order to assist her to convey some meaning to the gowns she wears. Surely a toilette without meaning is like a lake without water, and we are horribly disappointed with the emptiness of it all. If you have hit upon a colour which is more or less practical for every-day use, why not adopt it throughout your wardrobe? Thus, if you are a "nut-brown maid," with a brilliant brunette complexion, adopt brown as your own. Its varying shades will never let it grow monotonous, and, like navy, it can be worn on almost every occasion. One of the most successful ball dresses I ever saw was in brown tulle, not one shade, but many, and the gown was full of meaning. Red is flaming into favour thia season, and a red lacquered lace gown on a- fair girl or a brunette looks lovely for evening wear. I could write a whole treatise on grey, for bear in mind there are at least two or three dozen shades of this colour. (Generally speaking, grey is a colour to leave severely alone Silver metallic evening dresses, however, are wonderfully becoming to women as a rule, and there is the simple little grey wool Quaker frock, with white collar and cud's, which may be adopted by the. woman with a fair skin and golden hair, with some chance of success Our Sketch. Our illustration shows a smart cont (f sand-coloured alpaca, perfectly tailored. Observe the neat little hip