LADIES CQLUMN.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 41, 18 February 1911, Page 11

LADIES CQLUMN.

London JiasMon Notes* fITEOM OUJt OV/N CORRESPONDENT.] LONDON, 6th January. "What is a bargain?" queries the compiler of a sale catalogue issued by one of the biggest Oxford-street firms. The definition attached is: "A bargain is only a bargain if it is a useful article purchased at a price considerably lower than would ordinarily be paid for the same thing-." At the moment the bargainhunter is rampant, the sales are taking place in every part of London, and plenty that will prove of future use iij going at lew prices. Directly windows are dressed they have to be pulled to pieces again, and a general air of muddledom characterises the windows as been from the streets. Chaos will reign certainly for a whole month, and probably a good deal longer. And the public will have a good time, but the compiler of fashion notes will have a somewhat arduous task to get together much that will be of real interest. IDEAS FROM THE EAST. Directly to the East we owe one of the newest materials, also quite the latest style of dress. The_ former is a cashmere fabric patterned with a large floral design which is outlined with narrow lines of velvet; it is a strikingly handsome fabric, though rather massive perhaps to be used in great quantities, unless for court trains. More startling is tho latest style, and the experiment of its introduction is a very daring ono. On _ tho stage already the Turkish-trouaer skirt has been worn but now it is going to belong to the general public if tho latter care to adopt it, and the official name is the "harem suit." Thoroughly up-to-date are the models being prepared for the South of France, combining^ as they do, the one-sided cape decoration on the oodice, the tunic of knee-depth, and the divided or trouser portion clasping each ankle. HAREM VERSUS HOBBLE. "While neither style has much to recommend it, it seems on the whole that the harem style possesses sensible advantages over the hobble. 'The. case is thus presented by ''Lady Charlotte" :—"Advocates of the trouser suit defend it from tho accusations of those who consider it too unwomanly _ to be acceptable by declaring that it is far more feminine than the hobble skirt, which it has been designed to supplant. They say that the hobble skirt, with_ its restricted width, is productive of accidents as well as of an inolegant aspect, while tho harem model gives absolute freedom of movement and is extremely comfortable and becoming. But whether the trouser skirt can be as convenient and comfortable as the moderately narrow walking one of ordinary usage is a moot point. The baggy imne33 of the harem would appear to be rather cumbersome to the movements. One model has the trousers made of cashmere de soie of a , delicato fawn shade with a silver sheen upon it, and at the ankles there are elastic bands by the aid of which the fulness of the fabric can be tightened or _ expanded at will. Material to match is used for tho robe that is worn over the trousers, trimmed with Oriental embroidery in shades of gree<t and red, picked out with silver threads; this overskirt is a sort of corselet tunic, cut in two deep points, each point reaching lower than the knee and being weighted with a tassel; at the sides the tunic 3s shorter, and there, of course, most of the baggy _ trousers ;s; s visible. The whole costume is completed by ono of the new shoulder capes, coming midway down the arms, and fastened at one side invisibly, being '-finally with a, long tassel. A tassol at the back of each arm is the finish to the very wideopen sleeves." "If the harem suit should supplant the trim and quite short hohblo j skirt without establishing itself as a successor, and wo revert to the skirt thab touches the ground, or perchance sweeps it, there will be reason for sincere lamentations/ remarks "Lady Charlotte." SOME PRESENT, TENDENCIES. The tondency referred to a week or so > ago, to decorata the backs of dresses, seems likely to develop considerably, for the bark must be as ornate as the front; and where draped ,effecte are introduced the materials must be allowed to look a little more loose and full. It is quite thought that the tunic will last^till tho early apring, at any rate, for it haß beun found so useful that it will not be abandoned all at once. There is just a susi picion that the "little "frock" has outstayed its welcome, for various attempts are being made to reinstate the train, for ceremonious occasions at any rate, and fashionable ladies are restoring the coquetry of fcrain-lilting. The modern train is not cut to fall at the back so much as it 19 to appear at one side or the other ; it is detachablo and of wisplike proportions, and it is so closely allied to the pendant ends of a sa-sh that it is picked ap easily and with grace and supported in the crook of the arm as it it were a scarf. In Paris, we are told, when the fashionable »vomon leave the theatre, instead of letting their trains sweep the ground, up they are picked and borne aloft free from any dust on tho floor. Very often the dress is mado a complete affair from the train, which oftentimes is a completion of a swathed drapery of the peplum or tunic overdres3. These long and narrow folds that fall upon ihe floor at the left side or the right are considered 10 be vory smart, and, they aro accepted as a welcome change_ from tho very ordinary train which is slung at the back of the -oilettG. The Merveilleuse train, as it is called, dates back to the days of the Directoire, when feminine exaggerations of dress worn by "les merveilleuses" corresponded with the masculine excesses adopted" by ''lets incroyable3." A development of the ribbon velvet sash consists in die fact that it is worn a la Japanese. When the narrow train 1 is not chosen, a wide sash of velvet will i probably do duty instead. This is caught at the waist 111 what is called a , "windmill" bow, placed just a little higher than the waistline ; the wido ! streamers aro then allowed to fall beyond the hem of the skirt at the back, and a second '"windmill" is formed to keep them in place, and so to produco the effect of a small train. In many ways does the one-sided airangement announce the fact that it has come to stay. One-sided drapings to evening bodices and to day dresses have been with us for some months,. and this •usually has meant too the introduction of some different material to form the opposite side of the bodice, a scheme which further involes odd sleeves, for the sleeve has to conespond with, its own half of the bodice, and_ there ia a tendency that this lop-sided scheme may become too bizarre. Daring was a dress half of white cloth and half of black velvet, yet the strange alliance passed muster because it was well carried out. Slurred cloth composed tho right side of the bodice and sleeve back Mid front, black velvet the other half, in each ease the sleeves being cut in one with its particular material; the Magyar evidently does not intend to say farewell just yet. The skirt was chiefly of white cloth, inlet with panels of black velvet. In the spring the new cape will nearly always be fastened at one bide; probably it will cover nearly "the whole of ono sleeve, and leave all the other one exposed. Plain in style will be most of these tapes, outlined with cord motjfs and braid loops, and fastened on thw shoulder with large buttons and braid loops. Eevers will be draped to one aide ; hair ornaments are worn well at one side if they happen 10 be anything of an osprey or floral garniture ; fur stoles are worn with both ends falling at one side, one over the front of the arm, the other over the back of the shoulder; sashes and tassel cords are liked best knotted at one side, and many are the "rest gowns" fitted with one angel sleeve of silk cashmere or satin or tapestry, and the other arm covered with the material that happens to trim or compose the bodice on that side. New in the costume department is a 'coat and skirt suit. About the skirt then, is nothing really fresh, {or it ib of fairly generous fullness and of thort walking length, outlined with a band of fur. But the coat is a novelty, for it has dolman Bleovea which reach hardly bolow tho elbow at the back and dip elightly ia the,

front. These doeves are cut in one with the coat which is quite a. loose affair, and falls from the nock liko a mantle. Round tho neck is an outlining of fur, and this is carried in a slanting manner to form a slanting single rover. Down each side of the loosely-falling coal, whose length reaches to the knees, is a closely set row of satin-coveved buttons and loops, and inside ib a shorter waistcoat, which reaches below the waist, and is loose-fitting. The model was carried out in one of tho new figured fabrics, for which great favour ia expected as the season advances. This costume was to be taken from Paris to the Riviera, and it is a model which will probably be a good deal seen presently. That, and the harem suit, seem at present to be the chief novelties in the costume department, and both certainly are strikina. __„_ ________