NORMAN HARTNELL SAYS:- Put Sparkle Into Your Clothes

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31649, 8 April 1968, Page 2

NORMAN HARTNELL SAYS:Put Sparkle Into Your Clothes

LONDON. Women need—and deserve—a little glitter in their lives and on their clothes. Jewellery, properly chosen, can bring colour and sparkle to any outfit. I love to see women sparkle. I like to see their hair, their eyes, and their skin augmented and complimented by jewellery at throat and wrist.

If an evening is an extra special occasion, I like to see women’s clothes sparkle, too, embroidered with flashing beads or glinting silver. Of course you have to know where to stop. I am not saying you should drench yourself in glitter-dust and prance about like the Queen of the May. Often, the minimum amount of exotic embroidery on a dress looks the most effective. If you are handy with the needle, there is no reason why yo’ should not give the idea a try. But have .a practice on an old dress first.

I frequently use embroidery on clothes for the evening, or for special occasions. For example, if I am making a dress in pale blue satin (and I often do, for blue is the husband’s favourite), I might decide to contrast it with blue-black beads, or rose pink beads, or with silver sparkle. I undo the “jewel bags” I keep in my office—bulging with costume jewellery I have been collecting for years—and tip them all on to a table. I sort out the star sapphires, aquamarines, turquoises, zircons, and make them into a cornflower shape, or a scabious, or a cluster of plumbago in a mist of forget-me-nots. I push them all into shape with a pencil tip.

Patience Needed This is something you could do, if you have any surplus jewellery, but let me warn you it needs a lot of patience to sew on each sequin or bead by hand. It is possible to work from an embroidery transfer. Flowers, for instance, are quite easy to follow. In my case, 1 draw out my embroidery design on to the simulated satin shown in the sketch. I use blue and green and white paint, and a lot of water, and it soon becomes an aquamarine blue wash which paints on easily with a sable brush. But I would not advise every woman to try this technique. When the paint dries I use

a sharp pencil and draw in the detail on the satin in the sketch. Then each motif is stressed with solid blue paint, and each flower, bud, leaf, or tendril is illuminated with thick spots of white. My girls then copy the design on to life-size embroidery tracings.

Careful Choice I generally draw three more designs on three other sketches of satin dresses to see which contrast is the most effective. If I produce 40 designs for any set of embroidered dresses in, say, velvet, satin and tulle, I usually pick 30 for makingup. I would not advise this procedure for the home dressmaker as it is a trifle luxurious.

The embroidery tracings which need sequins and jewels

are distributed to seamstresses. The tracings are stretched tightly on a frame and the intricate work begins. It can take up to six weeks to complete. Yet the finished product is usually worth every minute. Beautiful embroidery can enhance the appearance of the loveliest cloth, and the loveliest women who wear it.

The jewellery you wear on yourself as opposed to that on your clothes should be chosen as carefully as you select your party dress.

In Limelight Modern costume jewellery looks a “million dollars," yet everyone knows a necklace can cost only 30 shillings. Choose jewellery like this to contrast, or tone, with your outfit.

If you are wearing the proverbial little black dress, you may want to wear your own pearls. These are monotonous, but still acceptable and becoming. as they illumine your neck and face. See your make-up is flawless, because pearls tend to throw it into the limelight. Gold chain jewellery is also acceptable. The flash of gilt is lovely with a woollen dress, crepe or velvet. But do not mix gold chain jewellery with pearls. I once saw a girl with a tiny pearl necklace and ear-rings and an enormous chunky gold chain bracelet The effect was hideous. Equally hideous would be a heavy gold chain necklace

worn with pearl ear-rings. Try to keep a theme running through your jewellery. If you don’t own pearls or gold chain jewellery, try turquoise blue, mixed with golden pearls. Good departmental stores have necklaces, bracelets, ear-rings and brooches like this for mixing. Some of the world’s most elegant women (and the wealthiest) now wear good class costume jewellery, although they would rather die than tell you. Fake topaz and fake amethysts look fascinating, too. A real Topaz brooch might cost thousands, but you can get a “valuable” imitation for £lO, and no one without a jeweller’s glass in his eye will be able to tell the difference Fake diamonds are effective, too, and after a couple of cocktails nobody cares that they are fake, including you. I often get women ordering a glamorous bejewelled cocktail gown in the middle of the moring, and trying it on before lunch. The look at it with desperation, with a jaundiced eye. “Oh, will it be too much, Mr Hartnell?” they ask. Meaning too much glitter.

Rosy Glow After lunch and a couple of cocktails, they see the dress as it is meant to be seen—in a rosy glow of cocktail hour. And, of course, it is superb. Choker necklaces are often smartest with current trends, but not for short necks. Princess Marina, I notice, wears chokers ♦ . great advantage. How about positioning a brooch?

I have seen brooches worn on top of the right sleeve, centre back of decolletage, at hip or at waist level, but I still like brooches best worn high up on the right side of the bodice of a dress.

Otherwise, how can they be admired during dinner?

Hard To Tell

If you want safe imitation jewellery, which means the sort that even jewellery people do not honestly know to be imitation, try aquamarine or turquoise. It is very hard to tell a real aquamarine or turquoise from a good imitation stone. Is there any rule about wearing jewels? Well, brunettes wear rubies and emeralds to perfection, and jet black beauties invariably look best in emeralds or gold. A redhead can wear turquoise or gold very well. Blondes? Perhaps the only stones they should avoid are the yellow ones. And yet, a jewel is such a tiny piece of colour that almost any woman can wear any jewel. I am in favour of a woman changing her hair to suit her jewellery.

The British designer, Norman Hartnell, continues his series of articles on fashion.