HOLIDAY STYLES IN NEW YORK

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXVI, Issue 14573, 17 January 1948, Page 5

HOLIDAY STYLES IN NEW YORK

VARIETY OF SKIRTS AND

BLOUSES

YOUNG PEOPLE DELIGHT IN NEW FASHIONS

Holiday fashions conspire to induce us all to stay or to become juniors, writes an overseas fashion writer. To wear a junior size is to invite the gayest and loveliest clothes of the season, clothes on which a wide group of experienced fashion designers spend their talent with infinite pleasure. Harking back to Victorian times, tiiey indicate . in modern parlance that it's pert to be pretty. Junior fashions don't miss a pretty trick. Petticoats, ruffles, bows, and puffs hold the centre of the stage, backed up by the full-skirted silhouette which still shows small angles and points up the slim, trim waist. Both Slim and Wide Recent openings of junior fashions make it quite apparent, however, that the consensus among their designers is that the slim as well as the wide look in clothes will make for a nice balance. One designer emphasises this premise by making some clothes that are pencil-slim and others in the ballerina swirl, with its great fullness. Suit skirts are both narrow and wide. Dorris Varnum, who is outstandirigly deft in handling junior fashions, points out that "Juniors like sophistication that isn't overdone. They like to look young, but not childlike. They like bright colours and subtle tones in long formal gowns . . . They do not need to acquire, they already have the 'new look'."

All lines lead to the rounded look. This begins with clothes cut and draped to round the hips, it follows in curving yokes and necklines, is emphasised in the graceful curves of stoles made of organza, of net, of wool jersey, or of furs. Even tiny capelets' accept the smooth curve of the shoulder.

Young people delight in the curves of the small, tight head-fit-ting caps. They cover the ears and magnify a smooth forehead seeming to continue the curved lines of the clothes.

You will find them made of velvets in odd medieval shades worn by the Florentines, in burnt orange tones, in the yellow of old court velvet, and strange olive greens. They are made in gleaming brocades, and in flat furs such as broadtail, or leopard, and are designed so as to catch every light that gleams in jewelled satins. Amazing Combinations

For important dates they might fall back, for example, on a rustcoloured velveteen skirt with impressed pleats, topped with a black lace circular neckline blouse and worn with a matching lace cap. Or perhaps it is one of the new doubledecker side-pleated skirts made of two layers of gray over green rayon sheer and worn with a smoky gray camisole top. s If your circular skirt of rayon faille has a corded hemline, and is of royal blue, you could combine it with a black sweater top with a portrait neckline. Even a * two tier black cotton skirt gains importance when you decide to wear it with a yellow lace bodice.

Some of these combinations sound a little weird, but they're wonderfully keyed to the modern mood. So is a flaring brown wool tweed skirt worn with a natural cashmere sweater and a royal blue jersey stole fringed with vari-coloured tassels.

Most of the coats inspired for the young holiday crowd are long with back fullness and convenient hoods. You see greatcoats of imported black Shetland tweecl made with a deeply fringed stole of the same material.

A full-length topper of diagonal gun metal and brown wool tweed makes a warm costume above a gun-metal knitted wool chenille dress striped in dark gray and purple. Every collection shows a bright red coat in its line, which stands out as cheerily as these coats invariably do on cold days when you watch the crowds blow along the streets.

Petticoat's have a great time rustling and murmuring, and pulling their surprises when the wind ripples the hems of the new skirts. The shimmer in satin—as when a black lace skirt flutters above its v/hite satin petticoat in a dress with a black satin, fitted bodice. With a black wool broadcloth suit having jet buttons and a necklet of silver fox, you distinctly hear the swish of a black taffeta petticoat. A shell pink organdie petticoat peeos out from beneath a brown faile dress with stiff balloon sleeves of organdie which match the petticoat. Occasionally a formal dress has its skirt caught up deliberately in a dainty festoon—and the petticoat then is something extraordinarily fine. Young holiday accessories go in for glitter. Bold rhinestones, big as pigeon eggs, circle slim throats in tight necklaces. Cobweb lace mantillas drift over . blonde and brunette coiffures with equal, romance. ... Gloves for gala occasions usually match the gown—in velvet, satin, or in silk Jersey, while smooth grace kids and suedes in pastel shades with tiniest pearls, to button them tight at the wrist, still charm even today's most modern moderns.