London Fashion Notes

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 47, 23 August 1930, Page 19

London Fashion Notes

Specially Writttn for "The Post."

LONDON, 4th July. | Cricket at Lord 's and tennis at Wimbledon have been the all-absorbing topics of interest in London this week.) For once tho sunshine was almost too obliging, and the Australian cricketers must have imagined themselves back in their own country, judging by the way they revelled in the heat and knocked up tho score. I Fashions are frankly "mid-summer"! —by which I mean that most women are considering comfort before chic— and the sleeveless frocks which were only intended for the home, the country, or the beach are appearing in town, even at smart restaurants. J Women may arrive to lunch, complete with the little coat or cape that fashion demands, but before the first course ia passed off comes the coat and probably the hat. The 1930 girl niay have returned to the fashions of the past, but she has no intention of following the hidebound

restrictions that are associated with them. Tropical clothes in tropical cities ( look in the picture, but Londoners who have so little of this sort of weather always seem a trifle self-conscious when they abandon' their conventionality and decide to be cool and comfortable. After a surfeit of chiffons and niuslins, of organdie and lace, it was a delight to see some really chic woollen! models designed for the early autumn. These, models had a double interest because, while they were made by the famous.house of Kevillo, they will be reproduced for the masses by the world-renowned firm of Wolsey. Probably, like myself, you only,associate Wolsey with cosy underwear, but at least you know that it stands for perfection of woollen underwear.

These same qualities of workmanship and material have been extended to "knit goods" for making the most attractive suits, coats, and the fashionable "little" dress which is so invaluable to most women. There are exquisitely fine jersey cloths in plain colours and patterned design, a vel-erepe that has a velvet surface and a jersey back. Jersey tweed is a specially beautiful fabric which promises to bo one of the spotlights of autumn fashions, because it so successfully meets the demand of modern fashions by combining warmth without: weight. Every variety of Scotch, Irish, and Cumberland tweed effects, in a wide range of exquisite colouring, will be available during the coming season, and as they are made of, Dominion wool woven in England, we can all feel proud of these materials. "Golden Arrow" was a smartly cut dress in deep maize wool stockinette, with a coatee of dark spice coloured vel-erepe, a bow of this material finished the V neck line, and a belt of the same defined the natural waist. "Heather," an unusually clever coat and skirt in black, white, and scarlet check tweed that was piped with black and white, and worn over a jumper that took up the same three shades tucked into the belt. The coat was cut straight, but at the waist line it had a point on each side of the front with button and button-hole for fastening, and the same idea buttoned on the cuff. "Progress" was an adora.ble little dress with a detachable capelet of dark tone wool stockinette bordered' with a lighter tone. "Abbey," another charming model in three shades of rose wool stockinette. '' Spires,'' an ensemble. consisting of a skirt of dark garnet vel-erepe, with coatee of a darker tone of the same material, with a jumper of white wool stockinette, with an applique'd spires, design in begonia and blajk. This samo design decorated tho coat, hem, and sleeves,, and was a daringly attractive colour. scheme. We were shown twenty designs in all, and each one. was perfect in its own particular way, so I have no hesitation in persuading you to ask for a '' Beville'' model in '' Wolsey " manufacture when nest you are seeking a charming suit or dress for really practical wear. I might add. that this.same idea was carried out during the spring, when "Reville" designed for the Lancashire manufacturers],'and'lf lias been an enormous success. Combining the skill and taste of the exclusive'dressmaker with the mass production manufacturer has raised the standard' of the ready-made gown, to. suit even the itiost, fastidious woman. From practical 61othes to priceless pearls seemed a long jump when I went on .to view Cartier's. exhibition of pearls, valued at'something round four million pounds! We handled bunches of short four-inch" strands of perfectly matched pearls'sb casually that it gave me a shock to realise that each bunch represented the pick of a whole season's catch of one hundred boats. We were shown how to match tho pearls to the complexion, the most valuable pearl of all being the creamy yellow one for the brunette,- the rosy white for tjie blonde, and black for the real Latin type. The so-called black, pearls are really gunmetal colour. tiuged brown or pink or copper. One feels they are rather an acquired taste, and could be easily mistaken by ■ the ordinary mortal for plain "beads;" A single -specimen in a ring was charming; and • cost the tiny, sum of three thousand five hundred pounds! But by this- "time price meant nothing to us all, for we had admired without even a flutter of amazement a necklace of forty-one perfect pearls at £85,000. One could understand a woman selling her soul for pearls, Where diamonds would leave one quite cold.—Euth Sibley.'