FASHION NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 224, 21 September 1929, Page 4 (Supplement)

FASHION NOTES.

PERFECTION IN DRESS. HOW TO ACHIEVE IT. (By A PARISIAN EXPEKT.I I have often noticed that Frenchwomen best like a compliment about their dress from a woman, rather than from a man. Men are generally ignorant of what is technically new in the mode, also they have not such fickleness of taste as women nave—thus, they are apt to pay you a compliment the day you are wearing an old rag of last year, as if it were the iirst time they had ever - set eyes on it, and just let go unheeded the most flamboyantly new creation of the season. This ineptitude of men to discriminate where

women's fashions are concerned is probably the reason why most Frenchwomen—and generally the women of Paris—seem to dress only to outshine one another, and appreciate best of all the compliments of a feminine friend in this regard. The average Frenchwoman with a certain amount of natural taste, a few thousand francs to spend each year on herself, and the desire to appear as if she had ten times as much, generally manages to achieve that end. She has a painstaking and ingenious mind, she loves to hunt and discover those marvellous little shops in the side streets of Paris, where they charge you a third of the prices of the rich houses {in other words a copyist), and she jealously keeps their names to herself. Her perfection has perhaps the least bit of self-consciousness about it, also she is perhaps a little too much "the last sketch from Paris," otherwise there is really no fault to be found in her. Perfection in Dress. Well - dressed women — well - dressed women of all nationalities—one is likely to see a great many of either kind every day_ in Paris, and their veiy different perfections in many cases make it impossible to compare them on the same terms, for they express different characters. And when I say perfection in dress it is, after all, what every one of us is striving to attain, I mean a complete and direct expression of one's own personality, without any futile desire to follow the latest decrees of the mode, just because they are that, if they happen to be unsuitable for our own particular types. Those women, both French and cosmopolitan, who achieve the enviable quality of citic, are invariably women who dress with personality, adapting the mode to themselves. Dressing the Head. Dressing the head is one of the most important problems of the woman who would be well-dressed. A charming frame for the face, lines which are flattering, even studied, are very necessary to a good appearance. Within the last year, the coiffure has become more" important than ever, for the past seasons have ■ brought in their wake shaggy coiffures, that fell over the eyebrows, making women look as mysterious in expression as Scotch terriers. Then, the "garconne" mode set women- to scraping their hair back and plastering it with brilliantine until they looked like Argentine dancers. To-day brings a happy medium. Most women . show their eyebrows, because they give expression to the face, and because there are so many possible curves to half conceal the brow and still leave the expressive eyebrow free. Most of the milliners, and many of the hairdressers, make evening coiffures which can be slipped on quickly at times when a late tea or a cocktail party has made a water-wave arrangement of the hair impossible before dinner. And it is sometimes good to wear an evening coiffure, ! just for a change, and "there are many to be seen just now. There is the closely-fitting little cap embroidered in crystal and pearl beads, reminiscently Indo-Chinese, which is so becoming to a dark, brilliant girl. Then there is the cap, copied from that worn by Chi-

nese babies, made of silver braid or gold for example. Then there is the coiffure made of gold or silver thread, arranged as though it were a wig. The singular point about this sort or headdress is that it resembles long hair rolled up in a little chignon that encircles the back of the neck. It does not look a bit like real hair, but it s immensely becoming, all the same. The Colour Card. Dressmakers have already decided upon the colours for autumn. Deep tones of bronze brown, deep red, of purplish greyish blue, and of orange stand out as new and desirable. For summer, on the contrary, the colours are bright and fresh. White strikes the keynote of the season, and it is enlivened by reds as brilliant as poppies, blues that recall the most vivid irises, yellows of daffodils and buttercups, greens bright like glossy oak leaves, or soft like the under sides of maple leaves, as well as the navy blues that look sq. handsome against a seacape and do not fade in sea air. For warm nights, the couturiers give ua white again, black in the filmy chiffon textures, soft pinks and subtle blues and melting mauves, as well as a group of dark tones, drawn from the violet of the I night sky, the mysterious black-green of trees under starlight, and the illusive blue of water under moonlight. A Few Remarks on the Fashions. No summer gown seems complete without a filmy coat —a chiffon coat, a georgette coat, a voile coat, or at least a floating scarf. Warmth is, of course, a minor consideration. The" dressmakers this season are making a feature of such dainty wraps. The line, by the way, is narrower than in past seasons, incredibly abbreviated, and consequently youthfuL A. fur collar on any kind of garment should be narrow. It should never reach the shoulders. Cape-like fur collars destroy even the slimmest of silhouettes, while, on the contrary, very wide and bushy fur borders below give a narrow look to most wraps. Remember: The smartest of a fur garment depends less on its value than on the way the skins are assembled and treated, while the beauty of a fur coat depends entirely on the quality of the skins. I understand that London wears its skirts right up, and its waist almost at the normal. That's just the way we are doing in Paris. But, of course, to wear the natural waist-line you must be slender, and to have your skirts above your knees you must have very pretty legs. Unusually short skirts require a raised waist-line, otherwise you may give the impression of just wearing a kilt. This might shorten you.

SIDELIGHTS on the Pakuranga Hunt Club's point-to-point meeting held on the slopes oJF Ramarama. In centre, the roaster, Mr. H. BullockWebster, is presenting m trophy to Mrs. P. H. Smith, wife of the huntsman* who rede Molly into second place in thu ladies' steeplechase.