FASHION NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 83, 8 April 1933, Page 3 (Supplement)

FASHION NOTES.

THE SPRING CREATIONS.

AMAZING DISPLAYS.

(By A PARIS EXPERT.}

Enthusiasm for your job is a wondrous thing! "It's dogged as does it," Bays the plodder, as he stumps along, head down, upon the dusty road. But enthusiasm is an aeroplane, that catches you up, to soar swiftly and delightedly to the goal —the same goal for everybody, if you like, only your enthusiast will enjoy every minute of the way. It was enthusiasm for the fashion game that carried me on its wings to the "Openings," when I plunged head-over-ears into a smothering sea of styles. There were over thirty-five collections to see in fourteen days, averaging nearer 300 than 200 models apiece, and I saw twenty-five of them with my own appraising eyes.

What one doesn't know about the new spring collections, after having seen twenty-five collections, simply hasn't been created yet. And now, you want the news—whether the silhouette has been seriously modified—what skirts are

doing, where the giddy waistline has ! been placed—what colours have joined the spring galaxy, and the details of materials and trimmings. You are a tiny bit worried about giving up your present comfort by rumours of fitted bodices. Underneath everything else is the thought, "Can I go on wearing that pretty green frock I got last September, and that coat that Jim loves me in, or must I throw everything away and begin all over again from the beginning ?" Well, then, a huge "No" to start with. Don't give, or throw away anything until you see how the French cat is going to jump. For at present the revolutionary features of the new fashions are on trial for their lives, and the verdict will not be given until some time in April. Let's Be Lovely in the Evening. White satin evening gowns have all the cachet of frocks made to be worn after dark. And white satin evening gowns are very much in the picture just now. Grey satin is perfect for a large dinner. If you don't wish to appear in a deeply cut-out evening gown, a little lace jacket bodice veils the back and shoulders.

Evening gowns follow the high-in-front trend, and jewellery and scarves should be planned to take these lines into consideration in both evening and day ensembles. If choker effects in jewellery suit you, this is the time to wear them. There is very little costume jewellery in the collections this year. I notice a tendency, when jewelled motifs are used at all, to incorporate them into the model itself. A thin circle of strass. in the front of an evening gown is seen, for instance, weaving two coloured scarves through and through it. Big brooches are being worn on evening gowns, and crystal bracelets, fat and round, in shades matching the gown or contrasting with' it. Ebony bracelets are favoured by some women to accompany black frocks. There is a tentative revival in Paris for something in the hair. There are new wreaths of daisies, ranunculus, or small gardenias, for the evening coiffure. This is a fashion which may be charming, or it may be a terrible mistake. Flowers, as a matter of fact, are in again. All the little Mimi Pinsons of Paris must be thankful to see them coming back.

■All the smartest spring suits are "expressed" according lo the word of the best dressmakers in grey, grey which is so poetic to gaze on and so hard on one's complexion. Even on a fine warm day it is a shade which one has to live up to. But grey is the colour, from grim irongrey and coupir d' elephant, down to a shade so delicate and pearly as to be almost white. Grey in the spring is the great'refuge of the unimaginative, and I have heard that imagination was to have a eay this season. There are some strong-minded women, however, who are ordering for their spring suits a soft material—a new crepe in a delicate lcafqrwm shade, the colour of the budding . ttves. . \\ .