FASHION NOTES MOM LONDON

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 17, 21 January 1928, Page 17

FASHION NOTES MOM LONDON

(Specially Written for "The Post".) LONDON, sth December. London has certainly been a "City of Darkness" during the past week. Each morning we have wakened full of hopo that the sun had relented and decided to spread its rays' of cheer over our depressed souls. But no, more gloom! One had to imagine they were going out in the evening instead of starting forth on a morning shopping orgy. Small wonder that on all sides I find people preparing to flit to the south or spend Christmas in the Alps, for nothing is more invigorating than real winter weather with the joys of the ski, skate, and toboggan. However, sunshine clothes will interest you more, so I must devote my letter to the news I have just received of clothes designed for the brilliant days of a Riviera holiday. The very new three-piece travelling suits are lovely, consisting .of sweater and skirt with a three-quarter circular cape to match. The sweaters are collared with fur and trimmed round tho bottom with fur to match, so that the suit is complete without the cape, which usually slips underneath the collar and is wrapped round the figure for extra cosiness while travelling. The majority of these new suits and sweater blouses are trimmed with fur, and look particularly smart when the fur is dyed the exact shade of the material used. As I have mentioned previously, if money is no object, costly furs are the correct thing. Even for trimmings the fashion for fancy furs is dying out. Quite a number of the newest skirts are cut circular for sports wear, while the wrapped-round skirt is revived, often fastened with a. huge metal safety pin to match the buckle of tho belt. The jumpers are showing ombre effects, and spots seem to have replaced stripes in the latest cloths now being shown. Woollen georgette and woollen : crepe are very advance materials, and will certainly figure in all the new spring collections, while cashmere jer sey of an incredibly soft texture is still tremendously used because it is such a favourite material with all clients'. , One is able to sit in it for hours without looking crushed, and it packs so beautifully, taking up a minimum space and yet emerging with all its pristine freshness. Some very new jumpers which have attracted much attention are made of mercerised jersey, woven with bright coloured bands round the bottom and trinimed round the waist with stitched bands of crepe maroeain, shaped like Tcetangles or V's over these bright col- ' ours. This produces a very new effect. Many white three-piece suits are bo ing shown amongst these early harbing ers of spring, the coats or capes varying in length from ful-length to hiplength, and white with bright colours or black is tremendously popular. I am enclosing a sketch of a-jumper suit, which shows a particularly happy method of combining colours ,or introducing black, and which shows the huge silk flower which has reappeared with sports clothes. Women are consistently inconsistent, always clamouring for some new fashion and usually failing to adopt it when it sarrives. Just at the moment Paris has sent us some revolutionary millinery which busy modistes are working incessantly to copy for impatient clients —all anxious to be first in the field with the novelty. Incredible though it may seem, tho little felt cloche is dead. It received its first blow from the milliner who gave us the high-crowned hat, followed by the elongated toque inspired by a native headdress. Now, methinks, she has taken her own prettily-shaped head for her inspiration, and cloth-

Ed it with a cap of feathers that looks precisely like a wig. These feather toques cling closley to the head with little "feather pattes curving over tired lines that too often appear round our eyes. Kingfisher plumage is an exquisite medium for these little toques. The glorious colours make eyes look bluer and picks out the subtle lights of the complexion, and is the smartest adjunct to a blue or black frock. Made in the natural golden pheasant colours they are very chic with a brown ensemble. While in gold or silvered feathers they look precisely like a very futuristic shingle. Not a single hair must show beneath these toques, and the slant line on the forehead is softened by a tiny veil that slopes over one eye only. This little "one-eyed" veil is most original, and is worn with many hats of different types. ' As you know, the chic hat must be built on the head, and I recently watched a famous modiste fashioning toques on the head of an equally famous beauty. One of these was in ilattering black velvet and -.wathed tightly across the forehead and over the complete hoad, escaping in a ruche over each ear that tapered off round the nape of the neck. Another shaped like a beret wns draped impertinently on one side, the o-ily trimming being a bow of the same pinky beige felt of whicb it was made, witb a minute brown veil drawn over the eyes. As a distinct change she then moulded an enormous round of black felt. Turning it back from the forehead and quite close to the head, she cut it so that the side wings looked like the propeller of an airplane, which she proceeded to shape to moderate proportions. Using a narrow ribbon of the same felt, she threaded it through slots in the wings and tied it in a tiny bow in front. All of which sounds extremely simple, but the effect is amazingly chic—provided you have the lingers of a genius! —RUTH SIBLEY.