PARIS IN THE LOOKINGGLASS

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 123, 20 November 1926, Page 16

PARIS IN THE LOOKINGGLASS

FASHIONS AND FANCIES,

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

PABIS, 22nd September,

The dressmaking and social world was royally treated when a great dressmaker in the Haute Couture gave his show of new dresses the other day. The beautiful salons—pale grey ana silver, with hand-painted ceilings —were packed with well-dressed people, and everyone' was very enthusiastic. Bach dress was announced, and the pretty girls who wore the frocks, coats, and hats walked in measure with slow music The whole thing was in very good taste, no vulgar mannerisms, no flaunting of eccentricities, but quiet luxury was evident in. all. This par-

ticular couturier plays well with colour, and has not lost his well-known genius for line. His little sober linsey wolsey coatfrock in brown, with a scarf collar and a brown hat to match, is as luxurious in its way as tt.e lovely visiting dress in black panne velvet, untrimmed, and of exquisite simplicity, with a coat to match, having a black fox collar, and a gleaming gold satin lining. Many of the evening dresses are in flame-colour chiffon, trimmed with gold, and you get from them that impression of Eastern warmth and sunshine which is so pleasant in this grey land of ours. Then, as a contrast, you have lovely sober Parisian gowns in brown satjn, used in two ways, the dull surface striped with the brilliant side. There were also several brown dresses —brown is to be very fashionable as a colour this season—with coats to go with them, which are absolutely right for society women in Paris and London. The black dresses for afternoon and evening were just as right. One was in ebony georgette with soft drapery, and all down one side, a close line ■of little silver buttons, which smiled demurely as the floating draperies played about them. Gold and silver for trimming is used in profusion for afternoon and evening dresses. THE SKIRT BOTTOM. The skirt bottom is one of the season's definite novelties. Fow skirts, other than that of the sports suit, the tailleur, or informal utility dress, are cut straight at the edge. There is, j in almost every design, a sharp variation from the usual. It is caught up directly in front, with a drop of several inches in the back. Th material is drawn in bias folds across the front, to drop decidedly below the hem-line at one side, or it is longer in front, and is lifted towards the back to form' a bustle, or large, loose, sash-bow. This design is used by some of the couturiers in evening gowns, as is also the circular flounce, forming a ripple to the hem of the skirt. A scallop cut in the edge of the material is another treatment of the hemlint. A.SHORT CUT TO OHIO. j The black costume is a short cut to chic this winter. In any season that black is' present cut and cachet are present. But particularly is this the case this season, when Paris is choosing five black costumes to one in colour. Apart from brown, which is the autumn colour for people who like colour, black is "starring." I doVt mean full-black, although that is also important, but I do mean black in majority, with some colour to set it off well. A number of the women who belong to that Celestial body, '?The six best-dressed women in C'aris," are wearing black in preference to any of the charming colours that the season offera. Maud Loty—that charming lit-..----tie comedy actress, who dresses so wonderfully, and who is certainly one of the sextette—has been wearing nothing but black, particularly fox her evening toilettes. And there are others who wear black, tempering it with a bit of colour, in the shape of an enormous bunch of brilliant flowers on the left shoulder or the hip, or a glint of gold and silver here and there. SOMETHING) DANGEROUS ABOUT BLACK. There is something dangerous about black, which makes it so fascinating. It is the colour of vampires, of merry widows, and of frumpy dowagers. Blacks.this season are so widely different that they have to bo carefully stud- . ied by the woman who is going to adopt one or a number of them. There are blue-blacks, jet-blacks, and ebon-blacks. Black crepella is liked for day wear, it's dull crepe surface being extremely chic. Black kasha, equally dL.inguished, is a bit easier for the amateur to adopt. The throe blacks of the season, however, for afternoon and evening dresses are black tulle, black nioussoline de soie, black chiffon for afternoon wear, black inarocaiii, black crepe de • chine, black, crepella, and black satin. For street wear there is black velvet, black, broadcloth, black kasha, black satin. Girls of eighteen wear black broadcloth, which has a most unflapperly appearance. Couturiers are using it for sports costumes, a .d for -the sports costume black broadcloth is amazingly attractive. Everybody who has seen, these black sports dresses at |

the September openings is absolutely crazy about them. NEW IDEAS SHROUDED IN SECEEOY. One impression I gathered clearly enough from the" jumble of fiuo linen and furs and pearl embroidered gorgeosities which I havo seen jit the "Openings," is that tlio "lino" is practically the samo everywhere, which is odd, considering Hint, everybody shrouds his new idonst in lhi> 'nopest secrecy. Couturiers work hohiii I barred doors and closod shuttors, ami oven hooka and oyes, and liiiMmis', and snaps oro ordered sub rosnl And yet, on the great day oi.' tho i'iishion Show the result of this labour of love Mid of sileuco is vory much tho snmo everywhere. How did the secrets leak out? They will tell you, if you nsk, that ideas aro in tlio air wo breathe, that they float iv at the windows, so to speak, much as new inventions aro usually invented by two or thrco people at the same timo. Now, isn't that funny? Believe it if you like, but I rather think that a business which employs many, many women runs risks of being not exactly undiscovered country, when the curtain goes up. Nasty people say that women are not overburdened with a conscience where secets are concerned. Is this right, or is 't a horribly calumny?