PARIS IN THE LOOKING GLASS

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 30, 4 August 1923, Page 18

PARIS IN THE LOOKING GLASS

FASHIONS AND FANCIES

(Written for "The Post", by "Ger

maine.'')

PAEIS, 7th June. SUMMEB GAIETY IN PAEIS.

During the month of June, the Parisienne always lives much, and at high pressure. There is but little time to sleep at night, and only her long mornings of rest save her from the complete exhaustion which is rather the fashion in June. Fortunately, however, the wise Parisienne devotes her mornings to rest, and it is rarely at this season that one sees the woman of fashion before 1 o'clock, when she conies out for a walk in the Bois, or for a luncheon party. There is a gay and brilliant gathering of Parisiennes on the broadwalk of the Avenue dv Bois every morning, where, weather permitting, young and old foregather. Waiting motor-cars line the footpath, while women dressed in the latest of fashion lead costly little dogs about, or watch the elegant demeanour of their own small children walking hand-in-hand in pretty walking suits, apple-green or scarlet, or turquoise-blue. Up and down the tan groups of riders trot and gallop, and when the hour of the morning aperitif arrives the smart pavilion at ,the Porte Dauphine or the Pre Catelan is thronged. Dancing continues in high favour, and Parisians, after the morning Constitutional, betake themselves to a dejeuner a la fourchette at one of the smart restaurants a la mode, where they dance to a jazz band, between the courses—between the mouthfuls, as it were. By the way, have you ever noticed how the Parisienne comes into a restaurant? She walks very slowly, attended by the people who accompany her. She is usually smiling, just as if never in her life has she seen anything so entrancing as thaly particular restaurant. She never looks embarrassed, and she has an air as if she says to herself, "lam a woman—therefore I am charming," and on that assumption, of course, she is. Another thing: "None of them powder their faces at table. It is no longer considered good style in Paris for a woman to powder in public. Powder floating about the air, and settling in the soup, isn't exactly to everyone's'taste ! OEGANDI. We simply can't get -away from organdi. It endureth ever, and is so fragile and crushable! One can take a voile frock through anything, but organdi after one squeeze, is nought but a poor and draggled thing! Probably we are such contrary things that in its very fragility lies its success! However, for little fluted collars and cuffs, for pierrotesque ruffles and jabots, it is unsurpassed ! It is fresh and young-looking and easy to wash.. White organdi hats, too, are excessively fascinating. Quite plain and simple, with a bow of black ribbon eire knotted at the side, or a little ruche of the same. Beware of cherries, unless you want to look over-much like a Millais Christinas -supplement! It is so fatally easy to go wrong over cherries—look at the trouble, or celebrity, it led George Washington into! For if "trouble" isn't another word for "celebrity" I'm several Dutchwomen! COLOTJBS A LA MODE. The colours a la mode, to go by the first organdies of the season are not ex-

actly. pale and unassuming. There is the usual bright pink and rather hard blue; there is lemon-yellow and petunia. There is a brilliant cerise and a vivid cornflower blue. Poppy red has not survived the early spring. It was too blatant to flourish under a summer sun. There are, of course, other muslins besides organdi, but. they are like the salt that; has lost its savour. The organdi method is charmingly simple. You trim your dress with narrow ribbon, which is not only new and suitable, but also dernier cri at the same time, or you adorn it with a wealth'of little "tucks, the smaller the better, or a maze of hemstitchings in all the proper places, or a vast quantity of dear little frills, with or without picot edges, or a heap of tiny plissee, ruffles, and various other things. BEAD EMBROIDERIES. Bead embroideries are apparently providing the colour-loving artists with many opportunities for displaying their skill, a decoration they are applying with delightful impartiality to wool, cotton, and silken materials. Quite qne of the most attractive little blue serge,frocks imaginable carried two lines of small scarlet beads round the shallow scooped-out neck, and down either side of the front, where they flanked a row of round buttons similarly beaded, furI tlier novel and distinctive touches bung

accorded by a narrow waistbelt of scarlet leather, buckle wrist straps to match, the latter drawing in the fullness of quasi-bishop sleeves. The hat which accompanies this gown appeared to be a simple pull-on of marine-blue, on which, posed at a bizarre angle, are two curled Mephistopheliaii quills of bright scarlet —a veritable tour-de-forco.

SILK AND VELVET FLOWERS.

j Silk and velvet flowers, which are greatly used nowadays in Paris, form an ideal trimming for frocks. The simplest, oldest frock takes on an air of festivity and newness when the right posey is placed at the right spot. The alluring shoulder strap of the 'thirties made of a garland of flowers or a single rose and its foliage climbing over a white shoulder is making its re-appearance, and is. usually the only ornament of the rather severe evening bodices that are such a contrast to the billowy, fairylight, gauzy skirts they surmount. Never have evening frocks been apparently so simple. Their simplicity is a lure and a pitfall to the would-be home-dressmak-er, who imagines! that with half a yard of satin, several yards of tulle, and a few large peony-liko roses, she can create a Lanvin, a Callot, or a Paquin model. Nothing is more difficult to achieve, and the would-be dressmaker discovers that the flat corsages grimaces and puckers where it should be flat, the trulle that ought to flare crisply on the hips sags and lops limply in a draggle-tail manner, after it has been worn twice. The roses that should peep alluringly from betwean the soft folds flaunt themselves j brazenly, and are somehow never quite the right shade. . . And so the homedressmaker, having tried and tried in vain, either sits down and weeps amidst the ruins, or else goes out and- orders the right frock. That is why evening frocks are so expensive! Most women know this. In the cupboards of nearly all women there lies the ghost of many an unsuccessful frock. PLEATED SKIETS. We are menaced in Paris with a return to the sun-ray pleated skirts. I think I mentioned this fact before, in my article to-day, didn't I? Anyhow, they are excessively chic, but beware of those cut entirely, or almost entirely, on the bias, generally of soft material, that "drags" ! The hateful brutes ! Ah, these sun-ray skirts, with their saggings and their droppings. It needs a clever dressmaker to undertake them, unless they are kilted "straight down."