FOR WOMEN PRINTED FABRICS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 164, 13 July 1945, Page 3

FOR WOMEN PRINTED FABRICS

BRITAIN OFFERS QUALITY

DRESS DESIGNERS' SELECTIONS In an all out drive to Britain's export fashion trade manufacturers and artists all over the country are combining to produce 1 goods of astonishingly high quality. A collection of such work was recently shown m London by Zika Ascher, formerly connected with the textile trade in Prague.

The majority of the fabrics exhibited by Ascher were printed w.ith designs by Feliks Topolski, Cecil Beaton and Henry' Moore. The designs by p'eliks Topolski. ,the wellknown Polish artist who has lived in England for several 'years, were particularly good. Topolski's famous scrawled pen and ink drawings printed on pastel coloured scarf squares and dress material in neutral shades were extremely original and striking.'

' Cecil Beaton's work is reminiscent of his journej' to the Middle East where he travelled as an official photographer for the Ministry of Inforrhation. His squares are printed with pictures of natives and palm trees in gay vivid colours and one particularly outstanding dress pattern is of white noughts and crosses on a navy ground.-

There is a collection of lovely scarf squares in small Paisley designs, some printer' with the original blocks dating back to the middle 19th century, which was, shown with great success in America.' These are in a wonderful range of colours and are in direct contrast to the rather subdued shades of the "linen tweeds" which have an unusually soft appearance which is achieved by irregularity in the motifs and a deviation from the usual exact design. The grey, beige and light brown backgrounds offer scope for a Avide range of accessories.

Ascher has achieved an elegant simplicity with his fine cambric scarves with their dark vivid backgrounds and scrawled white designs. The whole tone of the collection is one of sophistication and originality. Britain cannot compete with the mass production of the U.S.a!, but can offer quality if not quantity. That she is already successful in doing so is shown by the fact that these prints have been chosen for nearly all their models by two of the world's most famous dress designers, Adrian, of Hollywood, and Molyneux.