PARIS IN THE LOOKING GLASS

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 108, 3 November 1923, Page 15

PARIS IN THE LOOKING GLASS

FACTS AND FANCIES

(Written for "The Post" by , "Germaine.")

PARIS, sth September.

''Why is it that English buyers always take back the wrong hats to Lori: j don, after a visit to Paris, and sell, them as 'lee derniers cris' ?" This was the very heartfelt remark overheard in a big French milliner's last week. The question is one which always leads to fierce argument. -Many of the models that appear in the windows of the London shops, duly ticketed as " Just arrived I from Paris," are sold to the unwary, at a fabulous figure, although they are as little like the real thing as the proverbial cat to the proverbial king. But l| want to tell you first about a new hat which will make its bow to the public in another week or two. The brim takes the. mushroom curve", which I really think suits every face. For its trimaing this hat, which is of black satin eire, has a little black lace veil hanging in soft fullness at the back, and then bunched up into fan-like pleatings in front; behind, and above, a couple of two roses, frankly and decoratvvely artificial rosen, made in velvet,, their petals shading from anemone-purple to pink, while two or three velvet leaves in still bright^ er pink trail further along on the filmy lace. . THE NEWEST SKIET " FLAKE." >. With regard to the fashions, the word " bustle " has been pronounced in. more than one showroom where new dress models are being displayed. Thi hip pannier of cane or wire has been very papular, but the tendency now is to carry the hump all round the waist, and the big roll or plait or stuffed material is double the size of its forerunner, and bulges mightily. Dresses, .too,' are getting shorter with inconvenient rapidity, and once they reach once more above the ankles,, trimmings will follow, and with trimmings .arid loppings the device oi the improyeivniay creep in. There are indications that the utterly plain skirt has had its day, and in several new dresses, the 'material is wound round and round, to make two, or even three, folds, one above the other. The bustle willi perhaps, come in: with the autumn, applied to taffetas and lace dresses. The circular movement in skirts is favoured without disturbing the slender line effect of ' the straight foundation lines. Fine pleats play a conspicuous part in the collections, and they are of the flaring order. Many of the very late autumn dresses will flare. Skirts are being made so that when' madams walks i the skirts" will fill up like a balloon, | but when she stands in repose the draperies will enfold her like a sheath. Tunics flare at the waist, and the new coats all flare, too. In fact, the chic Parisienne of the autvunn has, made up her mind to "flare " or die. 0 ■' COAT FROCKS THIS- AUTUMN. Coat frocks are particularly interesting this autumn. They are made tunic fashion, over a slim skirt. The Persian tunic, with long tight sleeves, is a feature of the.autumn "collections. A coat frock in black, with brilliant Persian embroideries on the tunic, was seen at a recent " opening," and created a sensation. Another coat frock in navy blue had a scarf of bright'Eussian embroidery.

Capes still hold their own. They are being made of woollen velvet lined with

.crepe.de chine or printed material. It ;is. a graceful and cosy garment to throw over the shoulders. . EVENING DRESSES. _ Slowly, but very surely, we are learnlng^the art of utter simplicity. & lot of us have seenit illustrated in the dresses worn this season at Deauville, and other smart watering places. In the Casino at Deauville one evening, a well-known actress appeared dressed in a gown so simple you hardly knew it was there. It made you think of fine poetry, in the effortless ease with which it got its message across. I found myself thinking: The moving moon went up the ■ sky and nowhere did abide. Softly she was ' going, up with a: star or two beside." Ihere wa.no more garnishment to the dresß, than to the verse of Coleridge— and yet it got its effect. Less magnificently, for it is but the expression of a minor art, yet it inspires in one .thoughts of an art that it transcendent It was a Jittle dress in a soft Italian colouring, olive green, old rose, a touch of; gold, and all so softly mingled, that nothing was too bright; There was a deep cut neck in the back, which is almost the trade-mark of Paris this season, and from thii neckline huas a,

panel, straight as a drop curtain, down the back, to the waist. There was a filmy little frilly, delicately pleated under-skirt that showed—very femininely.

THE HOBBLE SKIRT AND THE VANISHING WAISTLINE.

The latest advice regarding waistline is that it is mounting towards normal. Perhaps I would be more explicit if I said that it is vanishing ' altoy.ther. Belts are as nearly passe as they ever were iii their history, and the wrappedround look of the new skiite is bringing a loose carelessness of outline, rightin the spot where the trim ceinture used to function. .Women draw their skirts together into a big buckle at the right side and trust to a Divine providence that this fastening will hold through all the strain. The WTappedi-round look showsno signs of abating, and with it dictating silhouette boundaries—how can a waistline have any place? And now my favourite trick of contradicting every, thing previously stated, there are some Blim straight frocks to be seen this autumn, showing not one belt, but two of them. Of. course, the waistline comes out every now and then—like the gun in France-;-but more than now, and palely, tepidly.

Next in importance to world news, ] after ,vanising waistlines, is the rumour concerning the hobble skirt. Undoubtedly we are to see the hobble skirt in a modified form this autumn. The tight, hobble skirt is produced by folding the ekirt over from the left, and buttoning it on the right side, but it will be divided up to the knees, thus giving absolute freedom in walking, and, to con- ' tradict 1 once more what I have said in j j my article this week—when I referred to the fact that we may expect to see many flaring skirts this autmun—some of the new skirts are the narrowest ever seen. The wearers of them could not raise their feet higher than nine inches from the-ground, so short are these Bkirts. TO PAINT, OR NOT TO PAINT? The question just now in Paris is not: To paint or not to paint? but rather, to paint and how to paint? All Parisiennes paint in Paris. Of course I mean their faces, not, h picture Some do it well, others do it badly; some do it boldly, others do it timidly. One would rather it were not done at all—but there it is! The way in which some women dye their faces brown, their necks brown, their arms and hands brown—is very I curious. A dash of red high on each cheek, and another in the middle of the ' forehead, completes this alarming pom- I ture. Their ears are tinted red. their j lios are vermilion, even the inside of; their nostrils ia tinted. One asks oneself, is it necessary to look like one of the highly-coloured dolls, to be in the fashions, and at one's best ?