YOUR COAT IS AN ESSENTIAL

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 126, 29 May 1937, Page 3 (Supplement)

YOUR COAT IS AN ESSENTIAL

Plan the Wardrole Accordingly. (By A PARIS EXPERT.) WHATEVER other message they may use to plan a spring wardrobe, all the Paris dressmakers build it around the coat. You, my gentle leaders, can't do better. When spring comes, get the coat, or coats you're going to have, and then you're ready to plan the rest of the wardrobe. Styles in coats, as Paris hands them out, are varied. There's the short coat, the tunic coat, the long coat and the classic tailored coat that is ageless in fashions-. There's the separate cloth coat in a contrasting colour, and there's the tunic coat which slips smartly over a tunic suit or dress, or both. The long, romantic cape will be worn over suits and dresses. You may make your coat look glamorous and dressy, or breezy and sporty, by changing your frock and your accessories. If you have a dark blue coat, get yourself a grey dress of bright silk, plaid, striped or checked. Choose a rakish brimmed hat in the colour of the dress to go with it. Wear with it a pair of the new rather high shoes, and you're all ready for sports and practical occasions. Take the same coat and evolve an elegant ensemble by changing the accessories. Choose a satin suit or dress in a dark rich shade or black, or make it in taffetas or cloque, if you feel like it. Get one of the smartest dressy hats you can find. As spring will soon be upon us, a bright-coloured taffeta or straw would be lovely, or wear a smart toque trimmed with feathers, and choose it with an eye for colour. Don't think you must stick to black, but if you want j black, then veil your eyes in lace and | look mysterious. Wear antelope slippers and have them ride high on the instep. I Wear a jewel in varied-coloured stones, j and if it is shaped like a flower so much j the better. You can wear real flowers j on your coat or on the corsage of your dress. Little Suits. The new suits are exciting—just too neat for words. These little suits have usually short jackets in another material. A check jacket will accompany a plain skirt, or a dark jacket a light skirt, and vice versa. With these belted blouses are worn, frequently in a contrasting colour. In more formal suits and dresses for afternoon wear there is a casual elegance to be observed, coupled with a diverting air of extreme | simplicity. You will like those coats that hang loose like peasants' smocks from collarless throats, with big sleeves that bulk about the elbow. You will like to button yourself up in little jackets that come to the top of the hip-bone, and fit like a glove. With these ensembles are hats especially designed to wear with them, and mostly with brims. One little hat seen has a wavy brim and a little curly stalk on the top of the pointed crown, which makes it look like an inverted flower. Collars are Interesting this season. Kibbon, pique, organdie and lawn, are tour of the materials most favoured for some, which not only helps to brighten sombre dresses, but gives an air of youth to old ones. It is worthy of note that some of the mose effective neckwear this season is really very simple. Quite an unusual effect is given, for example, by a straight piece of stiffened linen, stitched round the neck, so that it stands up straight and with a softening touch introduced in front by a little cravat of the same material. The clever use of machine stitching or braid, the j skilful introduction of lace stitch | between strips of material, the manner J°f tying an organdie bow—and an ; amazing touch of smartness is given to | a gown. Most women will welcome I these delightful odds and ends, if only [ for the sense of freshness which they | impart—and when that has gone, the j cleaner and the laundress will welcome | them too.

Shiny Satins. For the evening shiny satins are favoured. A pale pink model seen at a recent fashion opening and having a Victorian decollete, was trimmed with sprays of ostrich feathers on the skirt. The directoire swallow-coat was featured in a dinner ensemble, consisting of a jacket with cut-away front and "tails," worn over a black dress, with a lame jabot. Jabots of sheer lace, white and softly frilled, are also much seen where the evening tailor-made is concerned. Also for the evening are tunics sometimes with high shoulder-wings, under which flowers are tucked- For evening wear outside the tailor-made there are two lines—the straight and statuesque and the full tulle or lace skirt, which nevertheless is always mounted on a very moulded bodice, which is continued to take the form of the hips. Black tulle edged with waxed braid, black lace combined with pink and white tulle with sequins, are used for typical Parisian gowns. Shoulders are frequently emphasised for the evening, and epaulettes or broad collars of lace feature on many dressesEvening headdresses are being mede of real flowers. At a recent private dance in the Boulevard St. Germain, the hostess wore a dress of rough white crepe, with touches of green, and a headdress of tuberoses; and a red anemone chaplet was worn with a red and white crepon dress with wavy bands of red on the bertha and hem. Evening coats are very smart and long. One seen in Chinese red velvet had a pointed train. The latest and craziest way to wear your earrings is on the top of your earn. Some of the Famous Forty are wearing those • Mercury wings clasped along the top of their ears, and pointing towards the back like Pan's ears. Some extremists even go the length of having their ears pierced almost at the top, in Oriental fashion, with a diamond solitaire for ornament. Taste. Taste is an arbitrary word in women's vocabulary. It should be applied to clothes, to actions, to everything. "Do what you like, but have taste about it." A woman with" taste always looks well dressed, alluring. And, to wear a dress well, a woman must know how to show it off. How to sit, how to stand, how to, walk well. I venture the opinion thg.t the greatest tiling a woman can do for herself is to learn to walk. If you walk well, you sit well, you stand well, you look well. Your clothes look better, there is a certain psychological uplift the moment one changes from a slouched figure to a smartly sustained one.

Top left: Afternoon dress in black corded woollen material, trimmed with white fringes on sleeves, neckline and pockets. A sash of heavy scarlet crepe provides contrast. Right: Black jersey fabric walking dress with full sleeves, tuc .y~ ,'l r; cen ' r f front and high neckline. The bodice is trimmed with gold braid. Below right: Three-quarter swing coat in grey and maroon tweed, Tvom with a maroon skirt and while pique blouse.