Wool is Featuring As A Favourite Fabric For Spring Styles In Paris

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXVI, Issue 14638, 6 April 1948, Page 5

Wool is Featuring As A Favourite Fabric For Spring Styles In Paris

Town And Country Women

NEW LOOK DEFINITELY ESTABLISHED BY FRENCH DESIGNERS

(Special tc, The Times-)

The new look is definitely established in Paris. Most designers tell this tale emphatically in wool, which is the" favourite of each house. While every designer, even the most conventional, has lengthened skirts, there is a tendency to shorten hem-lines, or at any rate, to vary them for every type of customer.

Whether this action is really a, signal that hemlines are going to shorten again, remains to be seen. The general trend throughout Paris at the moment is towards skirts which are about 12 ins. from the ground, with some hquses dropping them to just short of the ankles. There is no hour of the day for which wool is not advocated, no type of dress to which it is not adaptable, as every designer has gone out to show. There are simple tailored frocks in smooth surfaced striped wool fabrics, while wool jerseys, particularly those with a slightly irregular, ribbed appearance, like tree bark, are particularly popular in grey. Grey flannels arc used for tailormades and coat-frocks, but the term tailor-made is an elastic one in Paris this season, since the new sloping shoulders, the tightly nipped waists and the many basque effects have succeeded in abolishing the clasic "tailleur." Instead, suits are softly feminine, with a leaning towards 'dressiness and many of the models shown by Marcel Rochas are so softly feminine, so" decidedly frilly, that his mannequins look like Victorian daguerre types, an effect which is accentuated when they carry dainty parasols in the 1900 tradition. Alpaeca for "Dressy"' Wear Wherever ycu go in Paris this season you are shown black and white shepherd-plaid and hound'stooth suiting fabrics used for twopiece outfits, and above all for coat-frocks, many of the latter with primly starched linen collars and even guimpes. Some are opened in front in mock-bolero effects, filled in with criso white lawn or pique modesty-vests. The backs are clearly those of one-piece garments, although they may be broken by a small bustle-effect, with' the allpopular black patent-leather belts which have appeared everywhere. Alpaeca is chosen for dressy afternoon suits, for cocktail wear and even for dinner dresses. The French

fabric manufacturers pride themselves this season on the return of fine quality "smooth-surfaced fabrics woven with worsted yarns. (Incidentally, all the alpacca appears to hove been dyed black). Despite the number of crepe-like surfaces shown in the spring collections of wool materials, the couturiers have decided in favour of rather softer handles. Velourcloths, heavy as winter weights, but in delicate pastel shades for spring, are the only choice for a top-coat. It may be pale-lilac, off-white, pink or duck-green, while yellow, bright sulphure or canary, is a favourite; in many houses. Dress woollens introduce soft surfaces also and also more pastel colours. WnM Jerseys' Attracting 1 Attention Wool jerseys have captured the' attention of houses specialising in beach wear. Gres makes many beach frocks with full skirts, showing a bare mid-riff, which are topped by various types of bolero, or brpssiere borlico Yon may choose a bodice which fits close at the neck, but always discloses a bare waist-line.

Printed wool mcussesline, coming from the Lesur mills, makes an effective sarong-like skirt in vivid ereen printed with wbi'e patterns the bodice to match being opened in a narrow point. .Loose woo] jersey play dresses are shown by Hermes, shirred in bands across chest, waist and thighs, rather like a Grecian dancer's tunic. In every case' the jersey fabrics used for such models are the finest and mos; supple which can be obtained. Evening dresses in fine - woollen appear with full skirts, often padded out over the hips in the curved lines still favoured by many houses and stiff petticoats are worn benaath to,, hold them out dramatically. Christian Dior stiffens some of his wool skirts with buckram underlinings, giving them a crispness that leads one to wonder how the wearer sits down without the front hemline ■ flying up in an immense circle. Wool for evening knows no,limitations. It may be eyelet embroidered, sewn with the new mother o' pearl and coral ornaments, veiled with black Chantilly lace, or banded with silvery braid. Gilded embroidery has given place this season to silver, gunmetal and bronze which add new dignity to fashion.