“Bread And Butter” Colours In New Fabrics

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30602, 19 November 1964, Page 2

“Bread And Butter” Colours In New Fabrics

Weary of the word beige, fashion promoters are now talking about the “bread and butter” range when referring to the popular colour group which includes off-white to dark brown.

Next autumn’s wool fabrics will appear with names like Upper Crust, the exact shade of the top of a slightly over-baked tin loaf.

Pumpernickel is, as it indicates, the colour of German whole-meal rye bread; Crumb is a toasty fawn; Gingerbread is a bright ginger gold and Cornbread is the new name for last season’s favourite known then as marmalade.

Going down-scale to paler shades there is Wholewheat, a glowing tone between magnolia and ripe corn, and Buttermilk, an off-white. These newly named subtly changed colours were in an advance range of wool fabric samples shown in Christchurch this week by Miss Jillian Ewart of the trade promotion section of the Wool Board and its fashion writer. From Paris In her collecton Miss Ewart had snippets of the glamorous new wool fabrics used in recent Paris winter collections by such designers as Dior, Balenciaga. Corteges, Givenchy and Laroche. Some of the fabrics will be in New Zealand for autumn. Pink Influence

Miss Ewart said that pink has had a strong influence in recent dyes for wool fabrics. Rosewood of the 1920’s is back. It was used sparingly on its own by the Paris designers but was frequently teamed with this year's version of bark brown and driftwood, both of which now have a definite pink cast. The summer’s vibrant pinks have carried over into winter fabrics. Dancing <n the Dark, for instance, is a deep but hectic cyclamen. Begonia and Azalea are true to label: Bird of Paradise is, however, a coral pink. Pink Laurel is a pale cyclamen. Purple was a pace-setter, for those who can wear it Miss Ewart said. In this range come Black Tulip and African violet (a purple blue) and Garnet (wine red).

The late-summer landscape colours, which always appear in autumn fabrics, include Brass (mustard gold), Mapleseed (milky topaz) and Coq de Roche, a glowing orange. “Very, Very Red”

Very, Very Red explains itself—the most dazzling red in the fashion chart for many years. Included in the red range is Very Berry, which covers raspberry, mulberry and cranberry at their ripest.

Blues seem to be on the wane for winter, but Mineral

(a deep and vivid turquoise) is expected to be strong. Dove is a blue-grey. The new acquas are deep. Greys are coming back into favour, with Silver Shadow in the lead for paler shades. Green shades will be plentiful. The newest of these are Seaweed (a bright bottle green) and King of Prussia (a deep strong jade). New Wool Fabrics The new wool fabrics range from filmy open-weaves and feather-weight crepes to coarse tweeds, which some designers call “square” tweeds. The samples came from French, English, Irish and Italian mills. Not all the advance wool fabrics will be in New Zealand for next autumn, but there will be fine crepes for

after-five wear and evening gowns, wool twill and tweeds with unusual surface interest in new colour combinations.

Face-finish wool • coating fabrics, which have been popular in New Zealand for several years, were “rediscovered” in Paris this year, Miss Ewart said. Designers showed a distinct preference for face cloth, velour and melton.

Some of the open-weave dress fabrics are expected to reach New Zealand within a few months. A trend to watch for is the double-surfaced fabric, which is smooth on one side and brushed on the other.