STORE WINDOWS GO SCOTTISH

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 55, 2 September 1937, Page 19

STORE WINDOWS GO SCOTTISH

LONDON, August 6.

Fashionable London hovers between seasons. With the thermometer round eighty the few left in town sport high summer dress. One sees the sort of coats I have sketched for you this week in Bond Street in the afternoon or in' the Ritz grill at luncheon time. Although in August London is supposedly socially dead, lots of people return to town for a few days' shopping between sunning in the south and shooting up north. Already store windows, gone Scottish, are filled with tweeds for the "twelfth"—guns, cartridges, belts, low-heeled shoes, and felt hats. These tweeds so completely British —appearing as they do before the Paris openings—are interesting more for their colour and texture than for originality of style. True they herald a season of more normal shoulders— these have shrunk considerably since spring—but in other respects the silhouette remains almost as it was last

year. Short coats are perhaps getting longer, creeping down over the hipsi but they are still buttoned down the front. Yokes are important and often extend over the entire shoulder, forming a close-fitting cape. This may be of contrasting tweed—perhaps plaid or plain—or it may je of fur. Full-length top coats of plaid tweed in delicious colours —lime greens and violets, tans and dark blues ink greens and greeny blues—are made with this new dropped shoulder line. They then hang fairly straight and unwaisted to the hem— any fullness falling into two folds at thfc back. Every one of these new tweeds looks as if it had been made to fade into a Scottish,moor. Their colour has been stolen 'from the misted mauves and lilacs of the mountains, the purples and pale greens of springing heather, and the unapproachable depths of still cool tarns. Their texture, too, is firm and .thick yet spongylooking. '■'■'■ . , From Cowes comes a different story. Real summertime, weather has provoked^ a'great white wave, the more visual navy has been outclassed at every turn, although it is often called .in to supplement and'embellish what • would otherwise be, perhaps, too dazzingly white. White linen has pride of place, particularly for frocks with short coats of the same material, either matching or contrasting' in colour. White and grey flannel and a close weave'jersey are1 also successful, for suits which1 are most often strictly tailored. Prints show a nautical twist (

WAVE OF WHITE AT COWES

flaunting anchors, flags, fish, sailing boats, and steering wheels. Heads are often left uncovered unless by one of the conventional yachting caps. Unusual millinery that threatened to upset the racing balance are strips of vivid chiffon swathed in turban fashion and worn with heavy white silk sport frocks. Every other woman wears tinted glasses for watching the races— they not only rest the eyes but guard against "crow's feet" as well.

To return to the two coats in my sketch. On the left is an alpaca-weave reefer, snug-fitting as a schoolgirl's, after Schiaparelli. It is seamed and buttoned, and at neck and wrist bursts into a blaze of white pique. On the right is one of those invaluable outfits that can be worn from the first spring day right on through the summer. The coat is a soft, lightweight woollen, light navy in colour, and the frocl that goes underneath has a bird and cloud design in misty blues. The hats are both sailors—on the left a shiny black,

pineapple straw- Breton, arid on the right a straight sailorwith widish brim and shallow crown; It is filled with flowers under tho brim edge at the back.

Reports fom the Paris openings, which are in progress this week, are of headgear that is taller than any we have seen before. If the hat itself is not high, say the experts, the brims will turn up to unprecedented heights. The "off-the face" movement is waning and hats slip again further over the forehead and down to one eye. Enormous pancake berets, sometimes an inch thick, are, worn at' any angle. Rounded berets shoot violently upwards at one side. Plaid ribbon trims are significant. , . When a hat line changes, the hair lin invariably changes with it. If you want to be right for the new hats its absolutely necessary to let your hair grow long. Hairdressers are beginnina to realise the impossibility of elaborate styles under hats and all tendencies today are for smoothly brushed, shining hair that falls backwards away from the face in soft waves: At the nape of the neck it either curls over in a roll as it has done for some time past, or down' arid under in style. For evening it is pulled up in front and at the sides,' and a few soft curls or rolls are allowed to give it lino. Remember the upward movement at the sides and the downward sweep from front .to back and mould your coiffeur on that basic principle: BARBARAS