Ankle-Shoes, Leggings And Textured Stockings

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30540, 8 September 1964, Page 2

Ankle-Shoes, Leggings And Textured Stockings

PARIS. High; boots, top fashion last winter, were less in evidence in the recent Paris collections. They have been replaced mainly by —leggings of tweed, wool jersey or fabric to match a coat or suit, built into the shoe, and by the “little boot” worn with heavy, textured stockings.

Roger Vivier, whose designs for foot-wear have started major fashion trends in both Europe and North America, has made a kneehigh boot in grey flannel; others in red plaid, and similar materials, are built into a black, low-heeled, sling-back shoe.

This boot, better named “legging.” zips at the outer side while the sling-back shoe buttons over it. The heel is one and a half inches high, and squarish. Also among Vivier’s new Ideas, is a series of ankle high shoes, or little boots, to be worn with textured stockings. These he shows in an extremely soft leather called “Pangolin,” the skin of the ant-eater. The heels vary in height from three-quarters of an inch to one and a half inches. They are warm and practical for the winter. Roger Vivier makes the shoes which accompany the collections of Balmain, Gres. Paulette, St. Laurent as well as others. Dior’s collection showed only one boot, a “fantasie” made in rose chiffon of narrow bands, criss-crossed in two inch squares. For every-

day wear, neat flat heeled shoes with a lower cut and simple lines, elongating the foot, were offered. The heels were three-quarters of an inch to one and a half inches high, being almost square. It was noticeable that through-

out the .collections the mannequins wore lower-heeled shoes with street clothes. Afternoon shoes have the higher heel, up to three inches, and are made in glace kid, soft calf, antelope or crocodile. Evening shoes are in velvet, satin,' lace, with ornaments such as a bow or a jewel, or sumptuously decorated with pearls and cut stones. The colours are red, yellow, apricot, rose, blue green, emerald green, black and white. Fancy Stockings Bright ideas in stockings, appearing in many of the collections, contributed to the spirit of “jeunesse”. Roger Vivier’s “little boots” were worn withhelanca stretch nylon stockings made on lace machines, in black, fawn, brown, navy and dark green. Perhaps the most amusing were those at Jacques Heim, where the stockings were knitted in solid colours with half-inch stripes, one, two, or three, at the ankle. With a white ensemble, the stockings had black stripes; with navy blue, three red stripes an inch wide, began just above the ankle.. Some had only one stripe. With a particular ensemble, the stockings were knitted plain white nearly to the knee, when the colour changed to beige, and appeared to be joined to beige coloured Bermuda pants, as part of a pants-suit. VV’ith it was worn a beige coloured coat and a white hat. Nicely composed in colour to harmonise with an ensemble, besides being warm, these can provide a gay and amusing note for dull winter days. At Dior, the new stockings are in wool, in jacquard motifs, for example, black with white designs, blue with red, green with brown. Paisley Designs Pierre Cardin included stockings printed with paisley designs to go with blouses of woollen material printed with the same pattern, in pretty light blues and greys, for sport. Castillo presented tartan suits with tartah stockings to match, worn with steelbuckled, patent low-heeled shoes. At Lanvin’s the lacy pat-

tern of the stockings was enhanced by side clocks. The well-known milliner. Paulette, whose sense of fun runs high, prepared a collection for sport, of youthful and practical blouses, skirts, pantalons, stockings, and turbans, of jersey. The stockings harmonised with the ensemble, a blouse and skirt of cranberry jersey had knee-high stockings of the same colour. Stockings of plain colour, had contrasting heels and bands at the top. Made of beautiful materials, the fashion stocking is not lacking in elegance. High-spirited and in high fashion, they add a touch of glamour and brightness to any dull winter day.

Miss A. M. Bowbyes, the writer of this article and formerly of the School of Home Science, University of Otago, Is now on the staff of the Macdonald Institute, Guelph, Ontario. She visited Paris recently to cover the autumn-winter fashion collections for a group of New Zealand newspapers..