PARIS IN THE LOOKING GLASS

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 89, 14 April 1923, Page 16

PARIS IN THE LOOKING GLASS

FASHIONS' AND FANCIES

(Specially written for "The Post", by

Germaine.)

PARIS, 21st. February. . WHAT IS REQUIRED TO BECOME A

MANNEQUIN?

Can a woman become a mannequin without training? Interviewed on this point", a number of fashion designers of the famous fashion houses in the Rue de la Paix have replied emphatically in the negative. According to them, the essential qualities of a mannequin includes : Youth,. beauty, grace. Ability to present a frock with character. While the' first three are natural gifts, the fourth, in the opinion of the couturieres, can. only be acquired after months of careful study of gestures and beautiful attitudes, except in the case of a few rare "stars," who seem born to set off, a frock to its best advantage. Lured by the anticipated pleasure of wearing pretty frocks, women of all classes, and of widely-varying ages, have applied recently for employment as mannequins. Some are no longer in the bloom of youth, others, are young and ungainly. Usually, those who apply belong to the new-poor,-and were formerly in easy circumstances. They have been forced to seek work, as a result of the war. Many were formerly in society or literary circles^ and imagine that the only work a mannequin has to do is to show off lovely dresses, forgetting that there is the seamy side to the picture. Mannequins have to spend weary hours "trying on" the robes while they are being created. They have to change dresses constantly all the day long, sometimes as many as a hundred times a day. When a mannequin changes her lovely dresses, and becoriies a "Cinderella" at the end of the day, I daresay she feels a bit flat.. There are cases, however, where a mannequin will make a brilliant marriage. One, with whom I am intimately, acquainted, whose parents, in easy circumstances, refused their consent to her marriage with the man of her heart, left a .beautiful home to' live in one room on the sixth floor of a miserable house, and become a mannequin. To-day, she is the wife of a.wellknown Paris play-writer, has forgotten her "first love, and buys her clothes in the fashionable rue de la Paix house, where she formerly showed off dresseß. SEEN AT THE "OPENINGS." TAILOR-SUITS.' For the most part, the new tailorsuits have tight little skirts, and.trimlooking hip-length jackets. , These suits are generally conventional, with great attention paid'to little trimmings tucked in obscure places. Greys, dust, 'and soft shades predominate. Well-known materials are used in a new way,-such staple colours as those I have just mentioned, with navy-blue thrown in, bien entendu, are given a colour setting, which makes them positively original in' effect and most important and most telling. The new tailleur has a typical silhouette of its own, which, by some unaccountable magic, draws in towards the feet, and yet allows plenty of. room for walking. The trotteur dresses are of greater

length' than the /3uits, and the skirts looser, but it is the trimmings and the introduction of embroideries, combined with clever lines, which makes the difference in these dresses. THE CIRCLE STANDS A SYMBOL OF A'ROUNDED PERFECTION. The circular movement definitely predominates in certain fashion '.'collections." Circular skirts,! concentrating their fullness on one side, appear repeatedly. Circular flounces and circular panels enhance the charm of many of these models. Circular coats of the graceful three-quarter length are .shown, with narrow skirts beneath, to show the graceful folds in which these bell-shaped coats fall, and any number of circular capes and cape-sleeves put a certain cachet on this style. NEW MODELS HAVE CURIOUS NAMES. . Tho names of some of the models seen at the "Openings" are amusing. They explain the successive evocations. "Patriote," a little tailor-made, is a short story by Maupassant; "La Garscorme," a pearl-grey suit, with a box jacket, provoked a ripple of laughter in the audience. There is a "Passage a niveau" costume, -a "Pierre Eenoft" dress, a "Pardon" mantle. There is an Bvsning dress which is called "Le Rhur" on account of the magio aumptuousity

of its metallic and dark tissues. There is a printed crepe coat called "Luxor." Another model called "Dzin" was popular with "Americans, because of its name, and another called "Princess Mary," a little crepe de chine dress in her favourite blue, made entirely of eight-inch bias folds of this azure material, appealed," of course, to the Englishwomen present. EVENING DRESSES. Many are the evening dresses of lace, in black, brown, and beige.- They have their attractive bit of colour in Roman stripes in biaided or beaded bands on the foundation dress, which is invariably straight and well-fitted, while the lace overdress is full and fluffy. Many of the elaborate evening frocks are made of metal tulles, in silver, gold, or steel. Tulle appears in some form on most of the ball-dresses. A lovely dress showed a straight corsage of silver lace, yory bright and scintillating; worn with a skirt of fine silver tulle over a pale grey satin underskirt, the tulle hanging ', in crisp folds at the sides and on the hips. In a bright shade of apple-green tulle, a fair mannequin wore a glittering band of strass, laid round the figure below the waist. A very pretty mannequin looked charming in a fluffy black tulle "P.ierette" costume that revealed excessively slim ankles and dimpled shoulders. She removed the fluffy costume, and came' back once more into ti..e Salon, with the usual mannequin wriggle, in a wonderful, clinging sheath of sequined net that fell in long, close lines to the floor, and swept the carpet as gracefully as space permitted. From the shoulders floated long trailing wings of deep blue and violet gauze, a coronet of jet topped the whole, and set off her fair itair to perfection. * NEW NOTES. A new note in several navy-blue serge suits lies in a band of white pique inserted at the waistline, and Mousing over the belt. When worn with a short box-jacket, this little puff of white pique shows as a puffed piping to the jacket. Another new note in trimmings is narrow bands of tapestry ribbons. Grosgrain ribbons in loops make a belt and gauntlets, which finish very nicely the sleeve of a navy-blue serge dress. These ribbon- gauntlets, are worn on the wrist of an evening dres3 which has no sleeves at all. - ' . . '