WOMEN'S FORUM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 68, 22 March 1933, Page 13

WOMEN'S FORUM.

FEMININITY IN FASHION. "Let's all go feminine," says Fashion this spring; at least, that is the impression a "Daily Mail" reporter received when viewing the models recently. There were frills and ruffles, fluffy feathers, floating tulle, huge fox furs to frame the face becomingly. There was glittering embroidery, shimmering cire satins —everything to emphasise feminine charm. There were paste buckles and brooches on both day and evening gowns. There were bracelets of coloured glass, metal and tortoiscshell and several diamante designs. The fox furs which accompanied many suits and dresses just lifted ■ on and off like a garland without unfastening. They were dyed various colours. A startling evening gown was called "Barber's Pole," of striped material in red and yellow, trimmed with touches of black and made on very straight lines. The names of the models were amusing and included, "My Mother-in-law"—a black and yellow dress with a black coat heavily trimmed with black fox, and "Oh, to be 21 Again"—an evening gown of grey embroidered net. There was also "The Divorce Suit"—a demure black dress with Quaker-like collar and cuffs in white, and "The King's Proctor" —a handsome brown afternoon ensemble, trimmed with fox fur, with which was worn a small hat of little red flowers. THE ROOF OF THE WORLD. A woman accompanied members of the Houston-Mount Everest flight when they left Heston airport, Middlesex, for India in three aeroplanes. The expedition plane to make the lirst flight over Mount Everest (29,002 ft), the highest mountain in the world. Mrs. Fellowes, wife of Air Commodore l< 1 . M. Fellowes, leader of the expedition, will accompany her husband to India as a passenger in his machine. Two other machines will bo flown by SquadronLeader Lord Clydesdale, the chief pilot of the expedition, and Flight-Lieutenant D. ¥. Mclntyrc. They flew in formation across Franco, down the coast of Italy, across Sicily to Tunisia, North Africa, and afterwards by way of Cairo, ■Bagdad, and Basra to Karachi. They hoped to average from 500 to 000 miles a day. The two specially fitted machines have already been shipped to India. AGE NO BAR. The London County Council has ft woman education officer who, although she reaches the normal retiring age of 65 in April, is considered "too good to lose." A report states that Miss Phillippa G. Fawcett, since her appointment in 1905, has given most able and distinguisheel service as an assistant education officer in charge of the higher education branch. In view of the new arrangements being made, states an English paper, it is considered that the retirement of Miss Fawcett in April "would cause inconvenience to the public service," and it is recommended that the council should retain her services until 1934. Mine Fawcett, a daughter of the late Dame Millicent Fawcett, had been described as the beet-known woman mathematician of her generation. In 1890, as a student at Cambridge, she beat the Senior Wrangler of her year. THE FIGHT OF THE FASHIONS. Few things are so anuising ae the different stories sent out by the fashion designers.. First we are all going to be very gay, very chic, and sweetly feminine, like the "greenery yallcry" girl of the Gilbert and Sullivan days. Then we are told that women arc taking to trousers. About the la*t item there could be no manner of doubt, ae seen onour beaches in summer, but this time it is the street and the sea which are going to be invaded. "Women arc definitely taking to trousers," Mr. Peter Russell told a London paper. "The fashion was launched six months ago-, but needed a lead such ae. Marlene Dietrich, has given it. Women's figures have changed; five years the mode could never have been introduced." The plus fours are cut the same as men's and made by a man s tailor They will be paraded with ghillie shoes and the new beret worn over one eve A sun bathing flannel dress and sack coat adapt the outfit for cruising. WOMEN DISCOVERERS. Across the Gobi Desert used to be the hallmark of great adventure Now women are addressing the Central Asian Society of London on the subject. Miss Mildred Cable spoke oi how she and the Misses French accomplished this feat. They are all missionaries with the China Inland Mission, and were the first white women to cross the Gobi Desert on the borders of China, A companion of the three women Topsy. a little deaf and dumb Mongolian girl they adopted, sat in the front row of the hall. They are also probablj the first white people to have seen the <rravc of Benedict cle Goes, the pnesi who in 1603 set out to walk from India to China to prove that Cathay and China were tho same. He died a 1 Suchow, and was buried in the Gob Desert beside the Great Wall of China Miss Cable showed for' the first time the only photographs of the recently discovered Caves of the Thousand Bud dhas, which resemble those found by Bu Aurel Stein. These caves were revealec bv a river changing its course and washin" its way through a cliff. During a sand blizzard a traveller thought he could see a light above the cliff and approached it. Ho walked down the cleft made by the torrent and found a cave in which lie passed the night. Ir the morning he saw that the walls were covered with carvings of the Thousanc Buddhas and this revelation caused hirr to begin the life of a priest and to take care of the caves.