MUSIC AND HAIR.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 72, 18 December 1907, Page 3

MUSIC AND HAIR.

The unintelligent multitude have many a time and oft made, jokes at the expense of long-haired musicians, professing to believe that the possession of their .wealth of hair was the result of affectation and artifice. Noiv a Parisian.,scientist has come to the defence of'X and Y— — and Z- —with a declaration that there is a connection between musical instruments and the hair, and that the player of, stringed instruments will develop a plentiful thatch, while the man who takes to wjnd instruments will shortly have no hair worth speaking of. To believe this is at once a pleasure and'a pain. Of all musical fiends the worst is he who practises bugle calls at earliest morn and towards the middle of the night. The feeble pianist makes only his next door neighbours suffer, but the whole neighbourhood, and, if it be on a hill, the whole hillside population, suffers from the vagaries of the criminal who practices the reveille and never gets it right. It will bo a pleasure to his victims to know that Nemesis, is on. his trail, that- shortly Nemesis will have liiin by the hair. But to know that tho violinist noxt door, torturing you with her scraping .wails is, through your agony, growing luxuriant tresses, words cannot express the bitterness of this. THE SLEEVE OF TO-MORROW. Wo are certainly going' to seo all sorts of modes rev.ived and rediscovered for tho elongated sleeve of the autumn and winter. Longer they will bo, as wo have known for somo time, and in consequence, as I have predicted, much quieter in outline, and devoted to tho expression of the adorablo long lino of shoulder and arm. Nothing is more beautiful than the lines of tho arm when well shaped, but so few styles permit tho revealing of thom. Tho tight-iitting. transparent laco sleeve will be seen again, and those who possess pairs of real' laco liianches will bo able to use them onco more after a pause of somo yoars. The sleeve that- is formed'of a series of very slightly full poufs confined at intervals has been seen for some time, and onco nioro tho old fashion plates of Vgone days will be ransacked for fresh ideas. Thoso of tho forties reveal all sorts- of delightful ideas. ' x

Pretty little dressing jackets aro made in whito and coloured lawn, beautifully embroidered, with large turn-down collars and elbow sleeves. The cache, corset is guiltless of sleeves, which are replaced by shoulder straps of ribbon. Breakfast coats are mostly Japanese, or a muslin conteo cut somewhat low at the neck, with a large ribbon bow in front, -is popular. Stockings aro embroidered on the front, of the foot, and the now clocks are much more ornate. Chemises arc often embroidered on tlio material in delicate medallions, and no petticoats are' so fashionable as those of open hole work.

: In prehistoric days women realised the power of fashion, and the improvements of women's dress have gone hand in hand with civilisation. Its various developments may bo traced on the pyramids, on the temples of Rome and Greece, and in the pictures handed down to us from the Renaissance. Art has very faithfully produced the grace of the eighteenth centfiry and the sumptuousness of Empire days. tint through them all the successful woman has always given an individual touch. No one ever saw one of the sex really well dressed who slavishly followed a mere fashion. Our artists are bequeathing to posterity the modes of the moment idealised and transformed by a true touch of art.