WINTER COATS FOR CUP DAY

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31210, 7 November 1966, Page 2

WINTER COATS FOR CUP DAY

Dressing up in a new summer outfit for a sunny, leisurely day at the races is one of the few' gracious customs left in the “gogo” age. But when leaden skies threaten, women cannot be expected to do better than their second best, if there is a risk of a soaking and a southerly wind.

Hence Cup Day at Riccarton on Saturday saw last winter’s topcoats out again, perked up with gay little hats and bright umbrellas kept handy to protect them. Only the yonng and hardy braved the damp chill in silks and linens to suffer in the cause of fashion. Light-weight wool suits, the stand-by fashion in Canterbury, were the compromise between winter and summer. Flower and petal hats, rounder in shape; pill-boxes, taller and worn perched further back on the head; scarf hats and the straw breton that can be tilted any of three ways—these were the predominant millinery styles. Setting a new trend was a mantilla hat with its widemesh, black stiffened-net scarf set on the back of a bronze satin pill-box. Among the peaker caps was a Sherlock Holmes style with wide ear pieces strapped down firmly under the chin. Scarf hats, manipulated to look like turbans or pillboxes, took their place as a fashion accessory. Pinks and blues came out in stronger colours. There was some vivid orange and plenty of warm beige and cream tonings. A little bit of Chelsea appeared in the shape of a navy-and-white pin-stripe suit. The jacket was long lapelled and its curving, elongated shape was defined with a belt. The skirt scorned the knee, and the wearer scorned the protocol of wearing a hat—her long, dark tresses swung freely in uninhibited style.

BIG AND BOLD “The bolder the better,” say some fashion experts when considering checks. Designed along these lines was a seven-eighths length jacket in giant block checks of black and tan, teamed with a tan skirt.

A patron in tune with the modem urge to look “striking, not pretty,” wore a severely shaped linen helmet. Its golden shade matched the base of her brown, cream, and orange striped mandarin-style coat

The spy hat made its first appearance in Christchurch on a patron who wore black-and-white check from head to toe. Teamed with a matching wool trench coat the hat’s forward tilting brim came almost to eye level and was trimmed with a tiny bow. PINK AND PURPLE

Pink and purple were teamed by a young woman who wore the combination with a dash. Her purple wool coat flared out to a wide hemline above the knees; her hat was a rose felt halo. Mrs D. W. J. Gould, wife of the club’s chairman, wore a three-quarter length spindleberry and plum tweed coat over a slim line, plumcoloured wool dress. Her toning plush velour beret was banded with black, matching her accessories . Mrs P. D. Hall, wife of the club’s treasurer, chose a grey, fine-checked double-breasted suit, which she teamed with a black petalled tulle hat and black accessories.

Among visitors at the first day of the Canterbury Jockey Club’s New Zealand Cup meeting were: Dr. and Mrs J. J. Sullivan, Dr. and Mrs L. Poole (Auckland): Mr and Mrs W. E. W. Ormond (Havelock North); Mr and Mrs E. W. C. Nathan (Wellington); Mr and Mrs R. C. B. Greenslade, Mr and Mrs R. J. Barton, Mr and Mrs P. S. Georgeson (Dunedin); Mr and Mrs J. B. Hood (Hokitika); Mr and Mrs A. G. Wigley (Waimate); Mr and Mrs F. H. Plunkett (Winton); Mr and Mrs J. D. G. Cochrane (Balclutha).