FASHION NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 253, 24 October 1936, Page 3 (Supplement)

FASHION NOTES.

VOGUE FOR SUITS.

WHITE FOR THE BEACH. (By A PARIS EXPERT.) Suits are definitely "it" for summer. Every dress has a jacket. Blouses have never been lovelier, or quite so downright dainty. The new variation of the hobble skirt is supposed to be practical, meaning that it actually enables one to sit down, but it looks uncomfortable. The slit up the back of the skirt to the knees is very "Merry Widow" looking. The idea of filling in the back of a crepe skirt, from the knees down, and from seam to seam, with transparent material is new, and looks very different. There is a distinct tendency towards full skirts for the afternoon, some of which flare off frankly from the hips in an entirely new line, while others only display their width when in motion. Hardly a dress for afternoon or evening with no flowers. Their use is sometimes unexpected, as in an afternoon dress seen at a June Opening, and called "Guirlande," a black crepe, with a long necklace of flowers looped around the neck, continuing down, to be fastened to the belt, and thence over to the left hip drapery. Also a dress called "ATuguet," the motif in this case being hunches of lilies of the valley fastened around the neck on a white silk cord. Colour Contrasts. The new colours, are, happily, a mixture. Nothing is pure red or pure blue, but always a more subtle melange. Colour contrasts can be wine-red and tlack and white, or pale blue and purple tones, or even Chartreuse, red and purple, orange and purple. In the autumn collections, more "outlandish" colour-schemes will be shown, and bright red will no longer accompany inevitably a navy-blue frock with a bit of white. Already that particular combination begins to look a little commonplace. One of the newest of the "subtle" combinations is a candy-pink jacket bound with white braid,~ worn with a blouse of almond green. Red and green, both bright, are thrown together in several costumes already shown. Henna or copper colour, with black, is both lovely and new. Novelties of the Paris Modes. Trains are being featured upon many gowns and are being seen at the fashionable resorts a good deal. The padded shoulder is still liked by some, arid a new way of expressing width of the upper silhouette, is the little boleros having rather square cape-sleeves. The new items include every conceivable kind of belt and belt decoration. Among the motifs for them, are windows with flower-pots, mermaids, chandeliers, pear shaped pearl necklaces.

The short-skirted dinner dresses are making a splash and provide a novel note for women who like to show off pretty feet. The boutonniere and gloves often match: With a mimosa buttonhole, yellow gloves are worn, and red car-nation-red gloves. Jabots are seen on some blouses, the larger the better. Many surprisingly simple blouses are made of net—and then covered with cut-out flowers which are appliqued all over the transparent stuff. ' Necklines have suddenly become exceedingly demure, sleeves have been toned down, and collars are no longer the wild affairs they were. Coats sometimes have collars put into petals and covered with a wild maze of machine stitching, and some evening coats have modified Elizabethan collars. Sandals which are nothing but a casing of kid, in which the foot rests, are being worn with evening dresses in chiffon and tulle. Beach Wear. Styles for summer and beach wear have received much attention, and there are models for all hours of the day which enhance the feminine silhouette, and lend it new beauty both in line and colour. White is well featured for all hours of the day. Beacli wear is often hand-knitted—-"shorts bathing dresses" being trimmed with shoulder-straps of two shades of colour, knitted braid in the same wools being worked on the white flannel coats which accompany them. Low backs for summer are featured, both in actual beach dresses and also in, printed silk frocks, which can be worn equally well in town with their quite elaborate jackets. Millinery. The small hats question is settling itself. Mepliistophelian styles with peaked fronts, and those miniature saucers tied at the back with a fancy ribbon are too exaggerated to please for long. That's always the way of fashion. She introduces extremes in order to modify them. The result of her last efforts is a tiny little hat fitting as closely as possible, of course. She adores it in black, in deep red, in navy, of straw, of taffeta and the new soft velvet, and with a trimming of itself. • Literally, not metaphorically speaking, the newest hats are very much cut Many t>f them are crownless, some of them are without brims. Then there are. those marvellously beautiful hats with a crown in straw, in velvet, or anything you may like to choose, and the brim —in transparent mica. This looks just like glass, and the effect is ethereal and amazingly chic. Do not imagine that we are tiring of our pretty turbans. Let me state in all haste that when they have the charm of the latest models, such a thing would be impossible. In flexible straw—luciole for preference —plenty of the forehead is seen, but a softening effect is given by the manner in which the brim is upturned over the face, and then brought down low over the right side.