A MAID IN MAYFAIR

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 77, 31 March 1928, Page 4 (Supplement)

A MAID IN MAYFAIR

MEN MODISTES. dancing for health. !Trom Our Lndy Correspondent.) LONDON, December 8. A neck of charity halls in T/ondon teaches one quite a lot about the typo of frock wliit'll women prefer to dunce in this winter. For seven nights out of the hut eight one or another of the hip ballrooms in Mayfair lias been crowded! ■with society people, nnd I don't think r Jiavo ever seen collections of prettier! ;' HW|N ' <' w, n in the London season.' I'hrre wiii one dunce at which every girl' weenicd to he wearing a picture frock" of! velvet., and another when the robe do! style of tafl'eta changcarit appeared in every corner of the ballroom. Theremin 1 a great rape for huge bows for the! young people's dresses, and for narrow! floating trains nnd draperies for those of older women.

Satin and Velvet. Of materials, every dressmaker seems to he suggesting something with more enlist a rice in i(. than the georgette and chillon of last dancing season. Satin and velvet are great favourites. Not that either of them are heavy in these days. The popular "ring" velvet will <»o thiough a wedding ring as easily as the finest Oriental silk, and satin is a most lovely material, and drapes as easily and daintily ns cre|>o de chine. Lady Titchfield was wearing satin at two of the recent charity dances. At one of them «he was the Prince of Wales' partner, and at, another she helped to receive the charming little Dnchess of York. She is, as most people know, one of the greatest organisers of huge affairs in aid of hospitals and the prevention of tuberculosis campaign that society has to-day. In fact, She is following very closely in the footsteps of her mother-in-law, the beautiful Duchess of Portland, who has devoted all her married life to one charity or another. Ivory and Maize. With hair the colour of pale gold, and unshingled, Lady Titclifield looks lovely In all the pastel colours of to-day. One of her satin dance frocks was of old Ivory shade. The corsage was rounded, •nd had a 3in shoulder piece, and the »kirt was made with flat, fan-like draperies falling over a straight under-dress These draperies give the distinctive notel •to the frock. They were lined with gleaming satin of apricot colour, and although they laid quite flat while she was standing still, as she danced they moved slightly, so that one caught glimpses of the apricot. A mauve frock which she wore another night was perfectly straight, with just a touch of diamante on the corsage as trimming From the shoulders, however, there was a. most ingenious arrangement of trains, unlike anything I have seen on other frocks. Out all in one with the shoulders were lonp, narrow panels of the satin. These were carried across t the centre of the neckline and th« threaded through a wonderful old diai *nd buckle. The buckle was round »n4 quite two hicbes across, and the train pieces fell from it right to the hem of the skirt at the back. There was nothing to break the straight line in front, and as Lady Titchfleld is very slender, and orchid mauve suits her fair colouring, she looked very lovely in this frock.

Frocks and Furnishing. The effect which fashions hare on iurnishing these dayg is most interesting. People have beerf* having lots of "At Homes" the last week or two, and one finds rooms altered entirely from the arrangement of them which one knew earlier in the year. There is less furniture, for one thing, and distinctive colours are no more. Carpets and curtains ami upholstery generally make a •übdued background for clothes, hostesses having realised that nothing look* more incongruous than picture frocks of decided colours against a setting which does not tone.

Smaller Pictures. I People with large houses, who want to buy pictures for their walls, should have little difficulty just now in picking up bargains. Society is stripping oil paintings and water colours of any size from its rooms in order to indulge a taste /or miniatures and small etchings. It all began with the craze to live in flat*. Large canvases looked out of place with 'bijou furniture and fittings and the modern pale colour walls. Miniatures became the fashion, and they »ow share the honours with pictures, ■ay, 14in or 16in square. Even the soft tints of water colours were not considered suitable where a colour note had to be struck by a jade vase or a flamecoloured bowl, and the etching fits better Into tlie scheme of things than either oils or pastel drawings.

, Men Dress Designers. Dress designing is coming very much to the front in London as a career for brainy young university men. Norman Hartnell who, specialising in wedding dresses, has covered himself with glory by his original designs for the two big •weddings of the year—the Hon. Daphne Vivian's and Lady Mary Thynne's— studied "clothes artistry" before he left Magdalene College, Cambridge, and is now quite the dress oracle of the ultra smart set. An Oxford man, Captain Phillips, has struck out on still more ncvel lines, for he advises women how to dress in order to make the most of themselves, and also undertakes to nnd Lh« right garments for them. His wperienee was gained by choosing dresses tor his wife (a daughter of the late Sir Lewis Mclver) and her friends; SlJiiuiili son ' T '° ,)iT '' has E m m bca,,t 'ful dresses—reprewo'nSt r1 T S 0f r, the be worn at, a l»all on December 17 in aid Or a Lewislmm Hospital.

Cubist Cookery. ( The cubist influence that has estab-l islnvd itself , n %ther realms s, ems to )« r« V< !., a fIiRU amcm ' '• the cooks • for f,h(* Intent '^fccli^£? ,, in *-f« • 'J' le for cakes ami puddinc th»f C1 j s l« th« angularities of the most adv^cS 1 pictorial art. This fashion for "cubUt" ' cookery has spread even to the weddiL fea*. At the wedding c f tX ' ■bright young thinps," the cake was mui ' 11 of eubcs set in five tier-, » ii« lowohl. comprising five angular i he ru-xt four, and so on to tar, bihyli', uolitary one at the top. The fitult wit* certainly arresting in its uovully, ully uh the bride created », furtlier diversion by appearing in a vivid [link welding-dress.