CHANGED FASHIONS IN VIENNA

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 84, 7 January 1928, Page 22

CHANGED FASHIONS IN VIENNA

LAST EFFORT TO SAVE THE SCIALETTA

The Venetian shawl, the black “scialletta,” with long fringes, sung in tender verses by countless bards of the laguna and reproduced in thousands of pictures by artists in search of local colour, is doomed to disappear (says a correspondent of the “Observer”). As a matter of fact, it has practically disappeared already from the narrow, picturesque “calle,” and is exclusively worn bv old ladies. The cause of this, as of so many other changes, has been the war. When Venice was being bombarded by Austrian and German aeroplanes and threatened with occupation by the enemy, thousands of Ventians abandoned the city. Among these refugees were, of course, hundreds of girls, and such is the spirit of imitation that they became ashamed of their graceful black shawls and discarded them for commonplace hats. When the war was over the hat habit had been acquired, and could no longer be shaken off. Now that it is almost a thing of the past, the Venetian shawl deserves a last description. It is only a square of glossy black silk, with long dangling fringes, which accompany the graceful "swaying movements of the wearer as in’the Greek bas-reliefs of dancing nymphs. From the modern dressmaker’s point of view the ‘ scialletta” may be meaningless, but, aes-

thetically, it is a triumph when it is worn by the thoroughbred Venetian woman. In the time of the “Sereuissima” the shawl was regarded as a sign of respectability for women, so much so that a decree of the Senate, dated 1C44, forbade courtesans to wear “faziel de fla” or “shawls for respectable girls.” But the real introducer of the “scialletta” in its modern form was a refugee Armenian, one Giovanni Zivogli, who had fled to Venice in 1761 with his wife and. ten children owing to the persecution of the Turks in his country. He obtained the concession for the exclusive manufacture in Venice of “silk and cotton shawls in the fashion of the Indies,” and was soon doing a thriving business. Now that the end is in sight, lovers of Venetian folklore and customs have organised a competition, with handsome prizes in money, at the Hotel E.xceHior for the best shawls and the most graceful wearers, in hopes of galvanising the fadng faishion into life again The competition will no doubt prove a success, but it will not revive the “scialletta.” As a shrewd. old gondolier remarked, the first thing the winners mav be expected to do will be to rush off to the nearest modiste to buv new hats!