A MAID IN MAYFAIR.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 200, 24 August 1929, Page 4 (Supplement)

A MAID IN MAYFAIR.

MONEY BEFORE MANNERS

WOMEN *AND MOTOR SPEED.

(From Our London Lady Correspondent.)

Pyjamas for feminine wear when sunbathing on the shore are becoming a thing of the past, according to a trade buyer who has been attending wholesale dress displays in London. The sunbathing suit has taken their place. A typical model has "Oxford bags" of bril-liantly-coloured plaid silk, which are worn with an ivory silk singlet and a plaid silk jacket to match the bags. The kit is accompanied by a rectangular bag of the same into which the jacket is put when the owner is sun-bathing, thus converting the bag into a pillow. The outfit is usually completed with an immense cartwheel hat of rush straw. My buyer friend says that these outfits are being sold for wear on English beaches as well as on the Continent.

A PROSPEROUS CLUB. The Ladies' Carlton Club are, I hear, Experiencing unprecedented prosperity at the present time, and have received an accession to their membership during the past few weeks, which is measured in hundreds —and this despite raising the entrance fee to ten guineas. Doubtless this is partly accounted for by the fact that the club is likely to move from its present headquarters in Chesterfield Gardens at the end of the year to vastly more commodious premises in Grosvenor Place —Xos. 4 and s—the residence of the late Earl of Iveagh. The club is a very live one, both socially and politically, and provides the facilities for lady unionists that the establishment in Pall Hall does for the males. The club was originally founded by the late Sir Edward Coates as the Ladies' Imperial Club,, but the name was changed to the present one a few years ago.when- they took up residence in Chesterfield Gardens. In. these days it is pleasant to hear of any club that is prosperous; so there is . all the more credit to the management of this club for their enterprise in making their venture so attractive.

THE WOMEN MLP.'s. Miss Ellen Wilkinson's constant importuning for more room in the House of Commons for the women members of Parliament has at last had its effect. In the new Parliament there will not only be extra mirrors and chairs for them, but probably a room for those of each party.- To segregate the parties like this seems rather a pity, but perhaps the women themselves prefer it. And yet one remembers how happily Lady Astor and Mrs. Wintringham shared the one small "women's room in their early days of membership, and although, as the numbers grew slowly to ten, there were more and more grumblers about lack of space, they were quite good-natured and the little group in the last Parliament was really a very happy family. Since women are not so strictly party politicians as men, one might be forgiven for thinking that the M.P.'s among them would have preferred a common room in.the House.

MRS. VICTOR BRUCE. One's admiration for Mrs. Victor Bruce grows and grows. She has already done wonderful things with cars, broken old records for speed and driving and created new ones. And now she has set up a 24-hour non-stop driving'record. Only those who have driven a car at ordinary speed for-hours on end realise quite the strain that it entails. Mrs. Brace drove her car at the rate of about 90 miles an hour most of the time, so that in addition to the exhausting business of being at the wheel for so long, she had added nervous strain in controlling things at a speed which -was bound to mean putting every ounce of energy into the job. I can never understand quite how , Mrs. Bruce does these feats. She looks the frailest of mortals. She is small, always daintily dressed, with very small, pretty, hands. And yet she has accomplished things which many a man motorist might envy.

AMERICAN WOMEN GARDENERS,

I met some of the American women

gardeners who were over on a semiofficial tour of English gardens when I went to the Iris Show at Westminster. They took away from one's mind the impression one has gained from time to time that we English people do not come up to American standards. It was" delightful to have a woman who has made a beautiful roof garden in New York say to you, "Say, aren't you just proud to belong to a country which has all these wonderful gardens and these sweet, old-fashioned flowers? We try to copy you in the States, and it's only this week, while we have been going around seeing some of your famous gardens that we have realised our efforts are just n copy." All these women gardeners; who have been taken to see the Duke of Northumberland's lovely place near Guiklford, Lady Harcourt's gardens at Nujneham, Lord and Lady Astor's at Cliveden, and- so on, are members of the garden clubs of America and garden for sheer love of it.

COLOURED CIGAREIIES.

The smart Mayfair tobacconist, whose trade in hand-made cigarettes has been steadib- dwindling, is' very pleased at a new feminine fashion. This is for cigarettes rolled in coloured paper to match the customer's dress. It is the latest manifestation of the matching craze, and a -woman with a large wardrobe will buy as many .3 a thousand cigarettes at a time, in 15 or 20 different coloured papers. Dress., glass necklaces and bracelets, shoes, cigarette case, petrol lighter and cigarettes must be all of one unifoim shade. ' : A .silly idea, but good for trade," was- how an elderly Jermyn Street tobacconist commented on the coloured cigarettes which he is selling. O

SPECIAL LONDON HEELS.

Omnibuses and the Underground Railway , are responsible for a feminine fashion which caused foreign shoe manufacturers a lot of trouble. On tb«' Continent the "Louis" heel—with the fine waist and a small base —is all the rage,. But, except in the most expensive lines, it is quite unsaleable in London. The demand hero is for a variation of Uic "Cuban" heel, cut on straight lines and with a wider base. This is because the '"Louis" heel tits snugly into the lloor gratings of omnibuses" and in under ground lifts. A girl who has once-found herself a prisoner" by the heel, and'ha : d lo remove her shoe,- and stand like : a stork on one leg, —hile' it is released, will not again buy a "Louis" heel.