A Silver Christmas

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31248, 21 December 1966, Page 2

A Silver Christmas

(By

EDITH TEAGUE,

London.!

There’s a silver Christmas coming up and the silver has nothing to do with long-range weather forecasting. It is a very close-at-hand fashion trend.

Silver glitters after dark in sheen and gleam lurex, with metallic lustre high-lighting fine rayons, and in sequins ranging from teardrop to swinging disc sizes.

Styles for this‘party season need extra care in the choice made to fit the occasion. While discotheques hold sway, so does the trouser outfit. It may be a slinky catsuit, in treebark patterned crepe with a bloused waistline, or a widelegged pyjama outfit reminiscent of the 1930s—London designer Simon Massey has produced one in glittery silver, decorated by enormous stars. The briefest length, fittedlook dress is young “gear” for Christmas parties, 1966. One of the most striking is Susan Small’s interpretation in taffeta covered with silver sequins. The bodice line is cut in sharply at the top to bare the shoulders and give almost a halter effect at the neck. The slightly flared skirt ends well above the knees.

This cut-away shoulder line predominates right through the party-dress ranges. Frank Ushor uses it for a cocktail and dancing design with the bodice drawn into gentle folds to meet a jewelled polo collar. The polo neck is no longer used for knitted tops and sweater dresses only. In modified versions it is being used for all after-6 p.m. occasions —jewelled, embroidered or left plain when the fabric is a fragile chiffon or georgette. While short skirts stay “in,” even for frosty, snowy wea-

ther, they do not have to be straight and skimpily cut. Silver brocade is used by designer Bernshaw for a miniskirted harem dress, gathered at the low waistline and puffed into a mushroom hem. Rhonda Roy borrows the sari idea and gives it the Western touch, using fine voile for a dress which flares from narrow shoulders to a wide hem, with bandings of colour at the wrist and skirt edges. Crepe is used for party dresses by many designers—“teens and twenties” are catered for in one range with short, fitted figure-shaping crepe dresses enlivened by bands of contrasting colours curving from the hips to hemline; in more formal mood, John Bates at Jean Varson chose crepe for a fitted shift in warm orange with a high polo-neck and bands from underarms to hem in cerise pink. Crepe for the ballroom in the Shubette range makes a fitted gown in pastel colours, gilt studded at the high, round neckline, and round the hem and slit-side seams. Match-mate dress and coat evening outfits are the latest idea for Christmas and 1967 party wear. Robert Dorland teams a chevron-patterned silver lame coat for the luxury look with a simple slip of a dress; Robita uses pink chiffon for a dress with gently

rounded neckline, and tops it with a pink and gold patterned brocade coat with fitted waistband from which the skirt of the coat falls free to show the dress beneath; Carnegie teams a torquoise dress in sikly rayon, banded in quilting with a quilted coat.

This is the season when party-time dresses can combine two fabrics for great effects. From Angela at London Town—one of London’s top young designers—comes a dress in pastel crepe with a collar in a matching tone of satin, trimmed with silver motif on the bodice. This is also the season when one dress can look like two. It is the new tent style with a top floating layer worn over a fitted underskirt— Polly Peck uses pure silk, catching both layers at a curved high bodice with silver braid.

Black, as always, remains a favourite and always in fashion for party wear, in spite of all the newcomers on the scene. Fine black rayon is used by Rhona Roy for a swing of pleats edged with lace over a fitted underskirt, one of the prettiest uses of black this season. Accessories to wear with party dresses are all touched with silver. Lotus feature two of the very latest shapes in shoes in the shiniest of silver leathers—a low heel, roundtoe style with a buttoned bar across the vamp, and neat ankle bootees, silver right to the lacings.