FASHION NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 78, 2 April 1932, Page 4 (Supplement)

FASHION NOTES.

TALLER AND SLIMMER. BATTLE OVER SLEEVES. (By A PARIS EXPERT.) Paris has got a new silhouette for itself. Women are tired with playing at being modernised Victorian beauties. They have tossed aside their Empress Eugenie hats, and step out as new creatures. Formal functions of midwinter bring out different looking women. They seem taller and much slimmer, and they cast a shadow that is narrowed down to sapling proportions. Waistlines have come up in the world, almost to directoire in the evening, and below these hoisted lines, the skirt is narrow and undulating right down to the knees. Below the knees it is wide, but docs not look it —and the whole effect is very stately and tall.

This narrow skirt line is the line of Paris fashions, and it dominates daytime coats and dresses also.

The Matter of Sleeves. On the matter of sleeves, the Paris couturiers are divided against themselves. There are some who want big, swollen sleeves for coats and dresses, and others who like their sleeves medium sized, and still others prefer them fitted. Sleeves on coats sometimes adopt a Raglan cut, and tend toward an exaggerated fullness. One might say, indeed, that the programme of sleeveinflation has been approved and adopted by the smartest women in Paris. Nevertheless, all fashions have a time and a place. No style is good for all occasions, and this is true of the big-sleeve garment. While it is exceedingly fashionable in the best Paris society, it is not worn when the occasion calls for something very practical. So you will find no large sleeve on sports clothes or those for travelling, etc. Coats designed for wear travelling are given the usual straight sleeve, but these sleeves are not the height of fashion when one goes to luncheon at the liitz, or anywhere else after twelve noon. The luxurious town cbat this season has inflated sleeves, and so has the dressy afternoon suit.

Concerning Necklines and Collars. Necklines and collars are varied infi■nitely, 011 both coats and dresses. They are, however, generally more feminine than tailored. On a coat seen at ,a recent collection, the collar was of the personal kind that will be very chic for early spring. . This coat was of dark blue niarocain, and tlje collar merely a wide ruffle that was made to look like a ruff, because of the red silk scarf that was twisted around the neck under it.

One end of this scarf hangs down the front of the coat to the knees, and is held down by a tied-on maroeain belt. The sleeves were trimmed with ruffles, and the whole effect was exceedingly smart. While on the subject of collars, it may be as well to mention a new and amusing scarf, which the experienced wearer can throw over her shoulder with smart sophistication. When properly draped, it gives the effect of cape sleeves, and its broad band and long scarf ends make the coat. These capes will be most comfortable for warm summer evenings, and give a woman that feeling of being well dressed without the encumbrance of yards and yards of fabric.

The Job of Clothes.

The job of clothes is, essentially, to flatter the woman who wears them. To pick out and show the world her best points. This, children, is not enough in these complicated times. Every garment you wear must, in addition to flattering your charming person, flatter the garments it is worn with. The dress pays sweet compliments to the coat, the hat does the same to the collar, and so on. Not fulsomely done is this flattery, but gently, as the fern flatters the orchid.

This style mandate for continuous compliment between garments and

accessories is responsible for an immense amount of thought that is being lavished by the French couture on dresses and hats to wear under and on top of coats with high-standing collars. If

your coat collar is big and enveloping, you will not want to spoil the line of neck and shoulders by choosing a hat with a floppy brim or drooping feathers. Paris forbids this. It is one of the seven deadly sins against smartness. On the other hand, if you have a sports coat or jacket with turned-down collar and smart revers> one of those vagabond hats with a wavy brim that flatters the face will be .the smartest thing in the world for you. Or, if your coat is one of the new dressy models with a trim shoulder line, a little hat with a smart quill at the back will be all there ia that is all right.