PARIS FANCIES AND FASHIONS

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 25, 29 July 1922, Page 16

PARIS FANCIES AND FASHIONS

There is a perfect craze for painted gauzes, and this fashion will extend throughout the summer, writes "Aphrodite" in The Gentlewoman. Women ordei their designs upon muslin like they did for silk-tricot a season ago, but the flowers selected this year are not the same. We have become tired of poppies, roses, lilac, wild flowers,, wheat-ears, guelder roses, laburnum, hydrangeas, and carnations. Gladioli, iris, japonica, apple and peach blossom '(after the Japanese patterns), and what the French call

"blue geranium," are the ; ordei- of the day. But the artiste who 'undertake to copy these blossoms on georgette, organdi, crepe marquisette, and mousseline do soie, do not always reproduce them from nature. The new art, 'distorted, futurist—or whatever you like to term it—vein is there, ' still there, to guide the pencil and brash. Besides being 'somewhat styiisees, the beforementioned flowers are frequently blurred, yet, strangely enoifgh; are so neatly drawn that they are.quite' recognisable, oven from a distance. The materials thus painted are cut on Botticelli lines— primavera lines, to be moro accurate— and do not require any other trimming than, a few yards of narrow ribbon, (matching either the blossoms or foliage) surrounding the waist and falling in a clustei of loops and streamers from one shoulder to the hem of the skirt.

I know, many women unable to resist the temptation of ordering one of the expensive straw-embroidered dresses such as , are paraded at the races. ■, Oh, Fashion! How extravagant you make us at times! And these very women who laughed at Mile. Spinelly, the ■popular Paris actreae, in her raffiafringed skirt, a couple of years ago, are to-day wearing neayly the same sort of tiling, just because it is fashionable. On ,the pesage the toilettes that please most are chiefly white or black, fawn or grey, in charmetise, marocain, or crepr de chine, where tb,e design—be it wafers, flower buds, tiers of narrow fringes, or Greek pattern in trellis-work—appears chiefly ;on the skirt. The exotic visitor is curious to watch in this instance. Whereas the Parisienne is satisfied with just one straw-embroidered effect on her* frock, the lady from some distant clime will gp to the opposite extreme and have everything to correspond. She will choose a straw sunshade, bag, flounced and. fringed hat, straw-trimmed gloves and' shoes, thereby resembling to a great extent some grotesque Robinson Crusoe.

How to renovate a- last year's frock. If it be in voile, make the bodice in white or fawn, the skirt in navy blue, brown, or lacquer-red, or keep it. in its original colour. Decorate with embroidery either in open-worked kid or madeira work upon voile. Add ball-buttons in leather, or a similar material to the bodice. A pretty detail is a narrow, upright, medieval collar;

Notes by an English writer include the following:—There is a decided tendency in fashion just now to use several shades of the same colour on one dress. I have already related to you the blending of the several shades of green—this feeling can be extended to. al> colours. I have seen.three and four different shades of navy used, and several shades of fed, and though the medium is usually ninbn or chiffon, yet some of the heavier silks are as successfully blended. Brown is a very popular favourite, and offers endless possibilities. :■ Fawn, mahogany, cinnamon, cafe au lait, tabac, etc., all-sblend together in perfect harmony, and sometimes a little posy of. wallflowers will add yet another %hade to the composition. Favourite daytime shades, however, are the cool neutral colours, such as grey, beige, and green. It is poesible to carry out your whole coat-frock or suit in one tone or several tones of any of these shades. A ; suit of beige cloth sometimes seeks a variation by a touch of self-toned silk or marocain only. Dullsurfaced materials are popular for daytime, wear,. a« in distinct contradiction to evening gowns,' where rich satins, embroideries, brocades, gold and silver metal materials, reign in supreme and gorgeous splendour. 4

Though there may as many as twelve different shades in a dress, yet their selection is not altogether thoughtless and reckless. For instance,' all the lovely colouring of the parrot inspires some blendings, such as geranium-red, tango, orange, and fawn. Peacock colourings of green, blue,/ night-shade, and mauve, or orchard shades of fawn, apple-green, and pink are realistic sources of inspiration, while gold, silver, and copper materials are (of were!), familial' blendings. A brown, sagegreen, and reseda-green, with a, bunch of white harebells at the waiat, might easily have found inspiration from some of Murray's Highland scenes. ■