BARBARIC FASHIONS

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 94, 22 April 1931, Page 13

BARBARIC FASHIONS

GIGANTIC "CHOKERS"

Steel and wood, thongs of leather and wads of felt, ..threaded on rough twine and intersected with slices of cardboard — theso are some of the smartest mediums for the adornment of the necks and arms of Madame 1931! For when the average Englishwoman decides to follow fashion at all, she goes "all out"! (states a writer in the "Daily Express").

The clumsier the necklace, tho more strikingly barbaric the colours; the heavier tho weight of the ornament slie fixes around bowing shoulders, the more content is she with her obeisance to an autocratic fashion* .When the size of her gigantic beac|| disarranges tho "set" of her tailor-made, causing acute and perpetual discomfort, or the various grotesque and destructive sabstances that comprise her necklace pull down her precariously arranged growing hair, or push her hat to an absurd angle; if she.leaves off her biggest and most protective "choker" in the face of a stinging "north-easter," and loses her voice forthwith—she suffers uncomplainingly—a martyr to fashion. 'These .eccentric necklaces and bracelets that arc all being'worn can be. extraordinarily attractive as well as1 merely- smart. •' Even while they are bizarre and extremes in size, shape, and colour, they can to becoming, as well as original. •"PEPPERMINT. LUMPS." Tho-tremendous round wood ones, whose barbaric "colours are violently assorted on. the same string, are separated by rings of carpet felt! Others —'quite feminine—arc strung on ribbon, fastened- with a cute little—-or largo— I hand-tiedbow'in tho napes .of tho neck. I Sonic -of the newest necklaces, consistj ing of-big single beads half-way round, cascading into thrco or four separate airings'of smaller, b.eadsj'aud chunks of variously coloured opaque substances — exact imitations of the popular "peppermint lumps"—are already being huh'g in many bead shops—and around siiany willing necks. Tiny glass bugles, I :-li--;;.f!vi|; :i<s'i-t wore at' wohs purposes. .f. • i ii> i-.Mi.'iMt^pmfi'siofi/.rcsemblt! the :.'r«\i'-t ii -d uwriil "i-hip.^" save l.hnl

Uu:,y arc displayed in every colour, of j 1 ho'rainbow. Coral, by the way, is the] misleading name for a shiny opaque bead that is an ordinary pale pink colour and is being exploited in place of the erstwhile übiquitous turquoise. Glass beads, imitative of crystal, mix effectively with coloured and opaque ones; others aro frosted over with a softly sparkling silver-gold crust, or elsemade- in the exact image of a snowball, separated by plain glass reminiscent, of icicles. VOR THE YOUNG. Hand-painted jazz-patterned beads, pastel-sha'dcd i-.arls, in double and triplo rows, groat wooden balls held together by leathern thongs, small balls of rolled wool, threaded on coarse twine, and velvet-covered wooden beads demonstrate both supply and demand for neck adornment in the most divergent of designs. But the most sensational of all are the tiny rose-pink beads, loomed to the width of a narrow scar±V flexible, and complete with fringe! This is to bo worn carelessly knotted against a dead black frock, otherwise unoruamented. Onco having worn tho new fad one feels'almost undressed without them! Discreetly selected, and with taste, they can give cachet to any smart ensemble, and an enviably chic touch to a shabby toilette. For tho young, the smart, tho slender, the bead craze is becoming and amusing. For the old and thu "stontish" it is eitli-V a farce or a tragedy. And when all is said and done, tho woman who can carry off an ungarlanded neck and still look "soignee" and smart —especially in evening dress —is to:day in tho minority, and therefore almost certainly in the limelight.