LA MERI’S COSTUMES FOR SECOND PROGRAMME

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 257, 27 July 1936, Page 4

LA MERI’S COSTUMES FOR SECOND PROGRAMME

La Meri, whose beautiful costumes have been the subject of much favourable comment In Wellington, appeared in her new programme at the Grand Opera House on Saturday night, when she gave her audience the opportunity of seeing her in fifteen new dresses, nearly all of them typical of the countries being represented in- her various dances. The beauty of her costumes is enhanced by clever and artistic lighting, and each one is particularly interesting as it is authentic in every detail. The Spanish costumes are most attractive, especially one of rose pink with stripes of white worn with a vivid scarf and an enormous Spanish comb. Another is of black lace over gold, worn with a large comb and a black lace mantilla. For her Javanese dance La Meri wears a native dress of gold patterned brocade, with trimmings of cerise and black and a gold headdress. Her Hindu temple dress is most striking, as is also her Arab street dancer’s costume of royal blue, red and gold. For her gavotte she wears a most artistic hooped period frock in which pale pink and blue predominate, and for her “Adoration of the Virgin,’’ her cloister gown is of purple and orange, made more beautiful by the clever use of lights. Her veil, which swathes the head and falls to form a long train, takes its colour from the lighting. La Meri also appears as a Russian puppet doll in red and white striped satin with touches of apple green and a tiny pill-box hat of red; and is later seen lu traditional Red Indian attire and also as an Argentinian gaucho, the costume being black with edgings of red. A Chilean national dress of deep apricot with edgings of black and a small apple-green apron is most effective, and La Merl’s final appearance is in the well-known costume of a Hawaiian hula girl.