Great Grandmother's Chenille

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 226, 24 September 1938, Page 5 (Supplement)

Great Grandmother's Chenille

Fashion Notes

SUMMER wardrobes are unfashionably incomplete without a black sheer of some sort. Daytime outfits worn by the most discriminating of women invariably are in navy or black, and sometimea in deep brown sheer materials.

ByA Paris Expert

Transparent clothes by the dozen are here for us to choose from, from veil-

like nets and chiffons to perky black organza suits. Worn with smart shoes, with the kind of hat that suits you best, these dark sheers will be the smartest things on the street*, in the clubs, in the shops, and down town for late dinners as the season advances. White goes to the country and is worn for spectator sports, and that means white footwear as well. Even pastels have been banished from the street scenes. Black or dark-sheers are the answer and the correct-answer to-the place of what to wear, from career girls toiling in stuffy offices, tp shoppers whq come to town to find all that's new and smart. These dark beauties will keep you cool, trim, slender and smarter than you.have ever been before. From crisp, dark cottons to revealing nets, they ai'e the best air-conditioned apparel ever designed.

One-piece dresses have the- airiest and shortest of sleeves, slightly flared skirts, sheath slips of black c.epe or swishing taffeta, and semi-fitted bodices. Twopiece outfits feature equally slim dresses and the choice of a variety of styles in coats, from the short-sleeved boleros to the long, straight front, back-flared chiffon coats. Suits as tailored as though they were made of wool are coming in organdies, stiff cable-nets, tucked or shirred chiffon, marquisette, tubbable black and white-dotted Swiss.

Laces Raak High

Laces rank -high in the fashions this season, from background fabrics which are over-embroidered with silk soutache, to the narrowest Valenciennes, frilled to mske a deep skirt border, which is among present effects. Ribbons of astonished firmness (so that no wrinkle mars their deep stiffness jrhen they are used as evening belts) are very favoured items in the trimming and construction of evening models. The high decollete is giving place to a low round one revealing the shoulders, or to a pleasing square front defined by the dark lines of a taffeta harness which bounds a deeper back decolletage. From lacy evening things to all-over lace for afternoon is not a far reach. Aioiig with some of the loveliest dress models evolved, are summer coats made

of lace wool, unlined and providing, notwithstanding its transparency, just the necessary warmth for a summer coat. These practical yet chic and beautiful models are made in. dress-length fitted types, and in three-quarter swinging swaggers. A new kind of head-veil is shown here in Paris. with some of the evening gowns. Sometimes it is fine lace, sometimes in a material of the gown itself, and often in tulle. It is thrown over the head and hangs to the waistline at the back. It would give beauty to the plainest woman and enhance the most beautiful. *

Beach Novelties Coarse mesh, looking often like tiny I hammock netting in string, is a beach novelty which seems to be creeping into town. The strings are dyed and the netting is done in broad Bayadere bands of many colours, one of which is chosen for a unique tie-on hat suggesting sea or country. No woman with the habit of searching for odd evening items, and materials that are different or that suit her unique beauty, would pass this fashion by; for her an odd string weave is top-notch as far as individual evening fashion is concerned.

Fringes, often part of the fabric frayed out, have taken their place among trimmings, and with excellent effect, since so many wools, linens and silks are of open, straight weave, which lends itself to fraved work.

There is no shadow of turning from the white ric-rai: braid wl icli trims coloured ginghams so effectively. They work it on now on edge, and they compose whole flowers of the finest and coarsest sort mixed. Twirled braids, which are peculiar to the Frenct "Haute Culture," are found in all sorts of heavy and delicate frayed work which is not now distinguished from embroidery. Some New Lines Long coats, built guardsmen's with swaggering fullness at the back, fitting tops and an amazing number of pockets. Short-fitting jackets, with high revere or none at all. Fairly straight skirts, and buttons and pockets as before. Occasionally the end of a coloured handkerchief falls from a pocket, and the effect is smart, especially when the pocket is placed on the hipline at the back. Loose finger-length jackets in bright colours, with matching hat« and dark slim skirts. Evening suits cut as much as possible on day-suit lines, with neat jackets or gown® in printed materials, with glamorous long coats of silk net to cover them. Jackets of jute, and evening gowns of glazed pique. Straw belts and buttons. Felt used as a fabric. Glass alpaga, suede material and whipcord. And the colours. ... I have never seen so many outside a rainbow. With orange, red, turquoise, lilac and coral, on backgrounds of white, grey, beige, brown and black, our clothes this season should look cheerful. Sports Wardrobe Sports suits take a tip from sporting gentlemen of the past, and come out in the loudest checkered patterns. They are made of cloth, checkered with such coftmrs as red, grqen and yellow. The new sports styles are just as practical and easy to jump around in as possible, but they are nevertheless feminine. The chic thing is sports clothes that make the wearer look like a picture —a graceful moving picture. Everybody in Paris has taken up "bicycling," and there is a flavour of the "bicycle built for two" about sports clothes that are worn to play golf and tennis in. Blazers flaming with lurid stripes like in the <rar 'nineties, are worn with flannel trousers that are shorter, but not short.

Plus-fours that are perilously near being bloomers, in the good old sense of the word, are made of the gayest colours and worn with woollen pull overs for active sports. Sports frocks have divided skirts (you may call them culottes), cut circular, but the simple note remains. As a matter of fact, modern girls going in for sports in a big way, copy the major element of men's sports clothes —comfort.