FASHION NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 164, 13 July 1935, Page 3 (Supplement)

FASHION NOTES.

NEW COLOUR SCHEMES. WIDE VARIETY IN HATS. (By A PARIS EXPERT.) Paris is its delightful, essential self once there is spring in the air. But spring in the air in Paris means something more than it does anywhere else. In the country spring makes itself evident in the bursting light of growing things and new arrivals in byre and sheepfold. In Paris the evident signs arc pretty women, looking serene in straw hats, after having got tired of their winter felts. Young men who have shed their overcoats, although they have not saved enough to buy their spring suits, cafe terraces that are crowded, windows dressed with the new season's wares, the chairwoman in the Bois and the parks doing business, and—the most joyous sign of all—more smiles on the faces of the workaday crowd. Conservative Fashions. Conservative fashions are in again. The dressmakers came out strong for inflation of whatever fashion trends they backed, with a few exceptions.

There is the narrow sheath silhouette group, with its attendant programme of split skirts, high necklines and short, exaggerated coats. All these things are inflated to their final extreme limit. The dress skirt is made narrower, its split hem more iplit, and the short coat or tunic that goes with it, fuller and smarter than ever. The dressmakers have not eliot our liems or waists up or down, they have not resorted to extravagant sleeves, freakish shoulders, or sensational tricks of any kind. And yet they have given us something—several things indeed — that are enchantingly new. For instance, we have modern versions of the directoire silhouette, for one thing; snug, short little jackets with collars high at the nape of the neck, upstanding lapels, frilly jabots or cravats or stocks, such as Robespierre and Danton used to wear in 1799. The Directoire idea is also seen in the huge bow or velvet, organdie or taffeta, crushed under our chine, in sprightly suits, in eternally young tailleurs and in those redingotes which are another manifestation of the Directoire. Redingotes with skirts that are full and flaring, and bodices above the hips fitted within an inch of their capacity, are the coats ot this class. Tips on the New Fabrics. Readers, you will doubtless succumb to the charms of celanese materlaces in delicate prints. They are adorable for summer frocks. Some of these are made with misty, blurred edged designs. On mousseline de soie with a glazed sutface it is an evening novelty, a fabric smooth as cream between the fingers. The new materials are all supple, feminine. Cotton goes into the headlines once again; tweed, woolly cottons. Piques get up early in the morning as sports frocks and suit blouses, and are still going strong late at night as evening dresses and little wraps. White is a favourite. Weaves vary from waffles to stripes. To wear at home, cotton chenille, which needs no pressing, is grand. Organdie starts under the chin in a big bow, and finishes as an evening dress. Checked and plaid cottons in spongy weaves are dashing. jjf you wlsli to be dans la mode this season, forget your complementary colour rules, and be colour conspicuous.

Harmony is a thing of the past. Paris dressmakers are showing new, conven-tion-defying combinations as strange in effect as the artistic efforts of modern painters. They have dipped into their paint boxes, to emerge with flagrant combinations. Smoke-grey, dark brown and delicate blue are shown in one ensemble. Chinese blue, warm brown and dull gold are shown together, and prune and wood-brown are touched with dead white. A dark brown tunic goea over a frock of deep carnation red, a Burgundy red crepe scarf on a grape purple frock, and a gold taffeta jacket over a mist grey dress. Other new combinations are bottle green with silver grey, yellow with smoke grey, and bright blue with deep red. Most unusual colour twosomes are seen in evening clothes. A raspberry coat tops a blackberry crepe dress, a Chinese red taffeta cape sets off a silver grey satin frock, and dull red crepe trims a pink crepe frock. Finally, blackberry, mulberry, raspberry, prune and grape are all being subjected to daring combinations at designer's whims. Millinery as Seen in Paris. There is a grand fight pending between the Paris milliners. One group insists that the only smart shape for the spring should be flat, and, what is more, they are backed up by the encouragement of some of the smartest women in Paris. Now the opposite party has introduced a modified "topper" in soft material,

either silk, felt or straw, with a moderate brim. This shape may be the result of the Directoire influence, and the tall hats which were worn at that period. One might almost say that there is a delightful rush of ■Directoire to the head. Apart from the postillion top hats, there is the dashing tricorne, sitting well forward on the brow, suggesting the 1790 Revolution days. And the hat with the duck's beak in front, and several flattering hats with rising brims, and rakish dips in both the front and the back of their brims, are other new millinery fantasies. If one were to describe the entire hat picture in one word, that word would be variety. The time has passed when there was one exigent and contemporary hat fashion that ordained the hat should be perched forward on the forehead, or rest childishly on the back of the head. To express it tersely, anything goes providing it suits a particular individuality. A black taffeta quilted suit and matching topper I saw the other day reminded me of the picture of the 1790 revolutionists. The top of this hat was crushed together and thrust through with a jotiple of quills, but in most eases the top of the crown is pushed inwards. The fashion of having the same gown in different shades is a recent refinement of elegance which is a significant sign of the times. The motto of a welldressed woman now seems to be "Not what to wear, but how to wear it."