FASHION PASSION: CASH IN!

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 142, 18 June 1938, Page 5 (Supplement)

FASHION PASSION: CASH IN!

ONE ought to know a great many things about what makes a dress a success besides material and dressmaker's science. You may have no ambition to parade at a dress show at so much per hour, as do some of the lovely svelte and graceful creatures mannequining the clothes , you go and see, but you would be surprised to know that the walk you envy hasn't been achieved as naturally as you think, nor the lithe body, nor. perhaps, the good back. There's a great deal of goings-on behind the scenes to perfect the model's walk, her posture generally, her ease, poise and grace. #%•" mannequin's .: walk is before a full-length mirror, and the only thing that will teach you to imitate her is to put yourself through a series of limbering and stretching exercises as your first step toward acquiring a perfect walk and poise. Acquiring a flare for wearing clothes may well save you barrels of money. There are women whose clothes are neither expensive nor exclusive models, but whose wearing of them gives thnm a sense of importance. We are told of the drama of a gown displayed by a mannequin. The same gown on its prospective owner later may show a marked change, but not through the fault of the gown, you may be sure, but because the woman buyer brings to it rounded shoulders, or maybe a poor carriage. And all the artistry of all the biggest dressmakers in Paris combined cannot, make a chic woman of one with a poor and distorted carriage. Paris Launches Midnight Among numerous innovations, Paris this season launches the new midnight tailored suit attractively coated on new short lines. A black satin, with graceful narrow, skirt slightly trained, is a

ByA Paris Expert

popular interpretation of this model. It is shown with a short box-jacket fastened down the front, as is a richly - coloured satin stock (at the back of tinneck), with delightful coloured crystal buttons to taste, these matching, as a rule, the smooth feathers adorning a black toque. These becoming hatted ensembles are designed for the many occasions when stately evening dress is unnecessary. Glorious colours occur throughout in fabrics, stock collars, new leather belts and facings. Brilliant red. green and blue make embroideries inspired by peasant work in the Land of the Midnight Sun. Soutache braiding is done on coat sleeves and lapels; these coloured, embroidered and braided designs. occur delightfully on silk jerseys and satins, and mousselines alike. Mobile Drapery Another interesting innovation is the modern "mobile" drapery. Examples of this new drapery are shown in floating lace or mousseline panelled gowns, the under-dresses of which are quite as graceful, as the final, or outside, draperies. This note comes uppermost again in many examples of the "petticoat' dress, a clinging one-piece which is youthful and which floats open down the centre-front over its slender underskirt or petticoat. The wrap-around is popular and slight drapery prevails. Folds or gathers give fullness to the busts and faillike sections of fine pleats throw their ample residue either upwards towards the throat or

down from the belt. to create a centrefront fullness. Several skirt models are hung the Lgvptian way. smooth and straight at the hack, and with tle-ir \c v slight fullness drawn together in front. Dinner dresses are slim and the Persian harem skirt with graceful ankle draperies and long, plain top is to star. Heading Up the Mode _ Two outstanding points in the new French millinery are their height and their colour brilliance. Nearly all are of straw, and often combine with another straw, or with faille, or are strikingly adorned with long sharp quills. new felt ribbons, twisted mat silks combining bright colours; these very new sharieg «o to new heights. They are made blender bv the chimney-pot formation, either pointed or squared, and pinched into a certain delicacy of outline that makes them smart and becoming. On these tall forms in unusual colours, construcing feather quills cut saw-tooth, are striking. Kihhon bands falling a 4 the back in short streamers or veils, stiffened or otherwise, make a graceful finishing touch. I'urples are most chic when brilliant, reds and fuchsias are indescribably vivid, colour discords are an accepted millinerv fact. There are crownless evening headdresses to be seen, restaurant hats and sports hats, the richness or simplicity of the fabric determining the hour and the season. Glass— cellophane — enters into the crownless hat in brilliant colourinvs. In purples and soft reds, green and Bordeaux, twisting and draping of cut fabrics is as popular as the turning and trying of charming ribbons. The bo ret has returned, usually in faille, standing high ami off the face or turned and folded with an intricacy not to he described.

Fashion Snapshots WOMAN" lmvs a new hat to express happiness, liecausc a new hat is a practical manifestation of her mood. It underlines, it fixes it. as a special ingredient fixes th<: scent in perfume. • • • • rpHI S season fashion-makers are playing tricks on us. Hats have never lieen more pretty to wear, more curious to observe, more difficult to understand. • « • » JT is said that a hat which makes an immediate appeal to the greatest i>aml>er of women is the one which has a definite name, as, for instance, the Juliet cap. the (ilengarry and the Napoleonic tricorne. • • • • rpHK Empress Eupenie hat, with an ostrich feather curling i n tli.- neck, brought us back to femininity with a crash, after years of those hard felt helmets which went with waists or. liips. knee-length skirts and all Che other nonsense of that hitler period. * » • • A LL picked out of a country garden. the inch-round blossoms that make the prettiest small toques have been rudely detached from their steins ready for spring and summer wear. These hats are multi-coloured in the best sense of the term. • • • • rpASSELS and vizor models have made their appearance. That evasive water-green or willow works up well in spring hats and seems to belong to the more delicate of the coloured tweeds.