SIGNS OF "THE SEASON."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 134, 8 June 1936, Page 12

SIGNS OF "THE SEASON."

LONDON WAKES IJP. WELL-GROOMED AMERICAN VISITORS. (By NELLE M SCANLAN.) LONDON, May 8. Signs of tlio season are all around us One swallow may not make a summer but when 5000 ice cream men on tri cycles take to the roads, with their "Sto] me aiul buy one" appeal, it gives a lead and offers hope cf that parched feelinj that hot days will soon engender. It i: only twelve years since this ice crean industry was launched, and the managei of one of the largest linns in those dayi pushed a bicycle himself. Now he con trols a staff of 5000. A decade ago, i you wanted an ice cream on a hot daj you went off to look for it. Bui modern methods of salesmanship believ< in bringing the goods to the customer So now you cannot motor many miles even in the remotest part of the country without encountering an ice ci'ean vendor pushing his way on wheels. The usual consumption of ice cream in Eiig land during the summer is about on* million gallons. The military tournament opened yes terday at Olympia, with its gay pag eantry, its daring riding, its complicate* musical drive by the Royal Horse Art it lery, and the vast arena was packed t< the doors. It was opened by the Duk< of York, who represented the King, an* lie was accompanied by the Duchess an* the two small princesses. The Duclies! of York wore a very smart hat, flat am drooping, with trimming underneatl against her hair. Princess Elizabeth who is the keenest member of any audi ence, was so impressed with the saluti they received on arrival that her hanc instinctively sprang to her head ii response. She is rather fond of saluting and from her earliest years she has copied the fictions of a saluting guarc with the same enthusiasm as that wit! which -.lie imitates the conductor of thi band. Yesterday the Duchess of Kent wem walking in the Park beside the pram ir which her small son was being wheclei out for his airing. And in the afternooi she opened a new health centre. Shi was wearing one of the newest hats very like the flat boater associated wit] Harrow, but she wore it with a becoming tilt. Light Clothes Required. The warm days sent women hot-foe to the shops, to buy summer clothes am bathing costumes. Quite a crow* arrived, complete with bathing cos tume, at the Serpentine in Hyde Park only to. find that bathing is permittee before breakfast in May, and that th< luxury of a dip at any hour is reserve* for the full-blown months of summer from June onwards. Many women, believe, were caught napping by thi heat, and changed into their ligh' clothes in the shop where they wen bought, sending their warmer ones hoin< by parcel. The manager of one stori declared they had sold more fox furs ii two days than ever before in such i brief period. These smart, but rathei useless adjuncts to a costume, arc stil very much in favour, worn slung acrosi the shoulders. • y Another sign that the season ha: begun is the influx of American visitors many of whom I saw at the Caledoniai Market to-day. They are always st well-groomed, these American visitors; hair and face, 'shoes and stockings receive special attention. It is thes* details which make for the wcll-dresse* woman, details in which so many Britisl: women fail. The Americans arc wear I ing square-toed shoes, the sharp point is j cut across in a straight line, instead oi I rounded, and they are rather attractive ! I have seen this type also showing in London shop windows, advertised as the latest American idea. And their stockings are always of good quality, conspicuously so. One woman to-day wore flat-heeled green suede shoes piped in red, and a green felt hat, suggestive of the Tyrol, with a red ribbon band and a tuft of feather at the back in the true Tyrolean style. Apart from this aggressive note, "she was quietly dressed, These visitors are always on the hunt for antiques, old jewellery, old furniture and quaint ornaments. So the month of May sees a great scramble round among the" dealers for Georgian and psuedoGeorgian stuff. Some or the women come armed with printed lists of hallmarks with which to verify the dealers' assertions, and the marks on the various types of china, so that they can't be cheated into buying imitation Dresden, or Chelsea or Spode. I saw a real little cockney on a cheap goods stall, waving a length of red and white spotted material at an American woman: "You don't need the brains of a Lloyd George and Winston Churchill to see' thisj.ere spot is a bargain at ninepence ha'penny a yard." But the American woman evidently didn't agree, brains or no brains, and she passed on her way in search of antiques. There were masses of New Zealand apples among the fruit at the market, and I bought New Zealand Cox's orange pippins for 3d "a lb, half the price you must pay in the West End stores, and I am nibbling one as I write this, and thinking of the sunny slopes in Nelson where it was grown.