London Fashion Notes

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 132, 30 November 1935, Page 19

London Fashion Notes

Specially Written for "The Post."

LONDON, October 4. London is rapidly filling up, and soon the Little Season will be in full swing. Important weddings are bringing people back to town earlier than usual, and I suspect the amount of rain we have had lately has made it easier to forsake the charms of. the country. . . The Royal wedding has caused a buzz in dressmaking circles, and Norman Hartnell, the' maker of the Duchess of Gloucester's wedding gown and those for the bridal retinue, is finding it difficult to satisfy all his clients. FRINGED TWEED. A fashion which I saw the Duchess exploiting was the vogue for fringed tweed. This is a trimming which gives a plain-woollen ensemble the air of ■ beautiful simplicity- only achieved by a creative mind. Lady Alice was wearing a stone beige dress and loose coat with these fringed edges to the bottom of both skirt and coat. Also to the turn-back cuffs, Crowned by the fashionable -halo hat in a matching colour,'which suited her wide-eyed beauty to perfection.

Any woollen fabric not too tightly

woven can be fringed by removing the threads of the material in one direction with a pin. This fringe often edges the jabots and soft ties that finish so many of the simple woollen frocks this season.Very pretty, too, are the double colcars that .finish checked woollen dresses, edged with a bias bind of one- colour in the material, while a belt of the material will be edged in the same way with a third strip running through the centre. If you want to add a little touch of fur to a spring suit.or dress, choose astrakan. As a friend remarked who had recently returned from the Paris fashion parades: "Surely there cannot be an inch ;of astrakan left in the city, so extensively has it been used this season." Actually, it is fur that can be decorative in small quantities without adding weight or heat, and looks exceedingly smart for small turnover collars, moderate revers, or fur edging the short buttoned-up-to-the-ihroat jackets that have small basques. MANY EVENING SILHOUETTES. There is so much variety in the evening fashions of the moment that every woman should be able to suit her own particular style. Slim dresses draped about the ankle make walking an art, while complicated draperies preserve the slim silhouette and look artlessly simple, but demand the cunning of an expert's hand. Chifton dresses that cling to the waist and hips become voluminous round the. hem, and many, many yards of material were used to fashion one apparently simple, debutante frock — actually forty yards in this case. Shirring,- tucking, and bjas gores are all employed to give slimness to,, these dresses which use so much material-. One shaded, taffeta,in mauve and pink gored to great width at the hem had a wide fotd of crystal pleated taffeta round the ofl-the-shoulder line., finishing with a cluster of mauve ostrich tips in the centreof the bodice. Ostrich is being used: in many decorative ways, although usually fairly neat in appearance—-small ostrich mounts and ornaments 'on hats and a few drooping plumes on the new tilted toques that, curl round the hair. CRAZE FOR CRYSTAL. Crystal is likely to be the next jewellery craze. Already smart New York has taken to it with the usual American enthusiasm for new fashions. Sometimes the crystal appears by itself, but more often it is combined with gold or platinum and precious and semi-precious stones. A pair of crystal dolphins make a clip, two others chase. in a circle to form a bracelet; another pair have their lashing tails caught by a heavy white silk cord to be tied round the neck. Crystal. watches for men to carry •with evening clothes and tiny oblong Avris1: watches orr silk cords for women. . Chunky. crystal rings and bracelets studded with huge: single stones and clips are round, square, and pearshaped, with precious stones forming a design. ' • RUTH SIBLEY. .