WORLD OF DRESS

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 3, 3 July 1926, Page 16

WORLD OF DRESS

WHAT LONDON IS WEARING

TVVO-PiECES AND THREE-PIECES

PBACTICAL UNIFORMITY.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

LONDON, Bth. May.

This year ever}-one has a two-piece or a three-piece, and nothing could be more useful or attractive. While sonic of the suits have delicacy* and dressiness as their dominant features, others are characterised by workmanlike simplicity which stamps them for good hard wear. Those who like to be in advance of the populace in tho matter of fashions indulged in the two-piece (dress and coat) a year ago. Now, stiil desirous of being different from the great majority, they have some kind of cape, or cape-attachment -with wing sleeves, instead of the more severe tailor-patterned coat. Or, still as an alternative, they are choosing a short coat just below hip-length, which appears to be one with the dress, tho line of separation being hardly observable, for the border edging the coat looks as if it might be a narrow belt on a dress. [ However, the multitude is being turned out to ordered pattern, and very well it looks, too. There is infinite variety really, obtained primarily by varying tho materials introduced and the colours used. Perhaps the most desirable of all, and tho newest, is tho dress of plain coloured heavy weight crepe do chine, with long coat of the finest gabardine or rep or marocain, exactly to tone, lined through with the same crepe as the dress. The colours are very choice, especially in the new shades of bois-de-rose, the whale gamut of orehidß, mauve, a variety of parma, and a wide range of soft tones of green. Of course, plain fabrics are more delicate than figured ones, so the practical woman who likes to combine smart effect with economy is selecting a dress of all-over printed crepo de chine or marocain, with a plain-coloured coat which is lined with the .dress fabric, and perhaps has slight touches of the same as a relief to collar and cuffs. As the summer advances the dresses will often be of flowered ninon or georgette. The coat is needed as a protector while going about London in. buses and tubes, but, removed on reaching its destination, there is revealed the smart and delicate dress carrying a bold floral design introducing several colours. The three-piece is a practical pattern too, though it is generally more simple than its two-piece rival. Into the construction of the three-piece we find that a great deal of artificial silk and wool is brought into use, in a range of colours and woven patterns that must please even the most fastidious. Also fine jersey cloth which keeps well in shape. The skirt, finely pleated if the fabric will allow, is .attached to a, silk bodice-top, and' over this comes the jumper which covers the hips. The third piece, of course, is tho long coat. Jumper suits, too, are delightful made of artificial crepe de chine—one of tho very successful new fabrics achieved by one" of the best known of British manufacturers. It lends itself well to all types of kilting—and these are of varying width and arrangement—for the skirt, while the jumper top has trimI mings and buttons of a different tone from the dress' itself. These jumper costumes will be seen on every tennis court, at every seaside resort, and on the river, and the wearers will feel themselves well, suitably, and smartly turned out at a moderate cost, for the material is half the price of crepe de chine and will servo its purpose well. • The coat can be of the artificial silk, too, but inora useful perhaps will be the over-wrap of fine rep lined through with the dress material. The whole range of artificial silks are notable for their excellent colours, the material taking every known shade, and being guaranteed fadeless. Most of the stripes are very effective —broad lines mingling with narrow lines, and colour schemes have been united with excellent results. These stripes will be seen everywhere before long, and those with green as their dominant note will be in great demand, while no fear is entertained that the bois-de-rose, being the new colour of the year, will have innumerable patrons. It is a colour —in an immense variety of tonings— that characterises every department of dress, cap-a-pie, and may be described generally as a pinky-fawn. Last year we had all the biscuit, buff, aud cinnamon shadings, but this year their place has been usurped by the newer tones. Sometimes it is more pink than.at other times, and in its strongest variant it is not unlike what once was known as crushed strawberry. But on the whole, more subtle shadings of it prevail, and some are suggestive of cedar wood.

THE FASHIONABLE LINE.

It goes without saying that the quantity of material used for the workmanlike two-piece ia strictly limited. Skirt 3 are still very short, and the coat is often an inch shorter than the dress. For the girl and woman slim enough to get within their confines, choice is bewildering, and'- prices need not l)o extravagant. But directly you find you cannot confine yourself into the orthodox mould the difficulty begins and tbe price ascends. For inatance, if you say you want, your calves to meet the skirt you are told tho extra couple c?. inches will require two additional yards of fabric and that tho costume lengths of the fabric you would like are already cut Id the other size. So you have to switch off to something) you don't like half as well and pay several guineas more. The makers, too, often forget that there are many people to be clothed who are quite outside tho narrow stock-size limit. If you are of the fashionable dimensions your outline is just covered and that's all, though movement is possible because the skirt and the coat are made with pleated side panels or with pleats somewhere. But for tho rest there is no surplus. The bodice line is still long, and without fullness, but one welcomes the return of the long sleeve and of the dress which is cut to the neck at the back, leaving a V-shape opening in front just big enough to struggle into the frock and out of. it again. This is where the shingled and the Eton-cropped score, for they can wriggle through the small right of entry without upsetting the hair. Tho unfashionable, on the other hand, usually have to do their hair after they are dressed, a practice which ia forced upon them reluctantly. However, tho woman-shaped-to-the-mould is very lucky, and she is the neatest creature anyone would wish, to see. The uniform neatness of the girl about town to-day is one of the first impressions to strike the visitor. Her shapely legs are still veiled with pale-colour-ed stockings of silk or its interesting rival, and on her feet are smart looking shoes of buff or grey, or other colour— or soft glace or snakeskin or crocodile. On her head is still tho close-fitting hat, but millinery, even for the shingled, shows many interesting developments, deserving of special notice. Then, too, there is tho scarf, a most attractive etcetera, of wondrous colour-blends in imposing designs, wbrn knotted at the back of the neck so that the long ends

fly backward in the play of the spring breeze. A WOED ABOUT THE CAPE. Frankly, the cape, either as a coinploto wrap or as a detachable detail, is not as. becoming to everyone as is the wrap-coat. There are tubby figures who look still more round-about in the cape, though they don't Beem to realise this fact. The successful figure for the cape should be tall and slim, with natural grace and with sloping shoulder line. There are, of course, petite women within the coquette category who can wear capes successfully and toy with them, but if they are short and awkward they look ludicrous and dowdy. There are some wrap cloaks that are a cross between coat and cape, in that they have wings instead of sleeves, and such, with a folded belt to grip the figure below the hips, are very becoming to everyone, made in black or coloured satin. As wraps, too, they are easily removed, and they do not crush the sleeves of a delicate dress beneath. Even the up-to-date silk rain-wrap is cut to this new pattern, and so liberal are the wings that they can be buttoned to form sleeves. AWAY BARE ARMS! For most dressy dresses have sleeves, and they are long. Some lit into tho wrists. with neat bands, above which is an inset balloon fulness introduced below the elbow. Others follow the arm closely to the elbow, and then have attached tremendously wide flounces of J georgette and lace —the kind of sleeve which could never bo coaxed inside a coat sleeve, so that a cape wrap becomes a necessity. There are the most delightful frocks made of georgetto or of printer! Ninon combined with Nottingham iacc. FILMY DAINTINESS. This latter fabric is of gossamer texture, and; i 3 so accommodating that it goes successfully through any dye. It is this variety of frock that is just as suitable for little dinner parties as for garden parties and afternoon receptions. It is a soft foam, into whose construction material is generously introduced^ the line is good and well adapted ite tho matronly figure. These lovely dresses are made over slips of self-colour jap silk. The bare neck ,is generally quite out of date, all the new frocks coming to the collar-line and allowing the fronts to describe a long V-shape. The sleeves are more often wide .Khan narrow. The balloon puff so commonly now seen is usually of a different material and colour than tho dress or jumper, aad manifestly was first introduced to fill the hiatus between elbow "and cuff where tho width of the dress fabric exhausted itself. The balloon is quite a good idea, and is neatly banded into a fitting cuff. There are some sleeves which will always find their way into the soup and tho gravy, and they, for economy and convenience sake, are better avoided. There is a fancy, too, for dress cuSs of the two-piece gown to be tied at the wrist with bows and loops of ribbon —a style simply asking for trouble when there is any jam or fruit juice on the table. NEW COLOUK EFFECTS. Kasha and ombre cloths are greatly used. The former is expensive but delightful; it has a good many imitators. The ombre (or shadow) cloths are striking to see en, masse. One edge is always very pale—just cream or biscuit or cloud-grey—and then a whole colour gradation dovelops till the other edge is dark brown, navy, tangerine, sapphire, or emerald. . When used for dresses and coats we generally see tho dark edge at the hem and the lighter part near the face. In addition to the ombre effects .there are very attractive light-toned cloths with deep bor- j der of stripes in colour contrast or some bold geometric design or one of flowers. All these things provide immense variety in the make-up when placed in the hands of capable and artistic designers. In more delicate fabrics for evening dresses and for theatre wraps there are ombre velvets and velvet-em-bossed ninons that simply are too tantalising to look at if they are outside the limits of the moderately filled purse.