Chat From Paris

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 63, 11 September 1937, Page 19

Chat From Paris

(By Margret Manet)

Now that the first fashion excitement of spring is over, Paris begins to' assert herself .i Which, of. course, moans that she becomes maturcr with every week that passes, more individual and therefore more chic. One notices' here, as in every country, a

siiaaen liberation from winter garb that, as it were, "goes to the head." Everything seems suddenly designed to express -excessive youth; the spring colours, the spring silhouettes, are all for naivette. Actually, the season is scarcely predicted by this first outpouring of new models—they are "new" only in contrast to the weavisome severity of winter. A month or so must pass before we know exactly where we stand.

Already here a sturdiness begins to reassert itself. Pastel colours, which are a monotonous essential, are being cast aside earlier this year. Downright colour contrasts are being seen.l.

COLOUR AND S COLLQPED LINE

Accessories: are seldom matchedVßlack and white comes inevitably back into its own. •••' ■ ENTERTAINING VARIETY. Suit skirts are: entertaining in their variety. Everything is attempted at the moment—central box-pleating, even front pleats, a front panel of knifepleats are among the popular ideas for fullness. On the other hand slender silhouettes persist; achieved by slits on. either side of a central panel, or of either side seam. • MODIFIED SLEEVES. Jackets are brief, with rounded lines and often collarless. The lined revers no longer flaunt out and up. Sleeves are modified and. restrained. On the tailored models,,stitching is often used to accentuate line and supply the chic that scolloped outlines seem to take away. One model—in grey linen, white stitched, and worn with narrow kid belt and-cravat of lime —has patch pockets, entirely circular and outlined, as is the inverted front skirt panel, with five rows of stitching.. frequently perfectly simple straight lines are used in the cutting, the scolloping being confined to an edging of contrasting braid. A skirt panel is often loose from the knee, its corners rounded, the whole edged with braid. THE NEW RULES. Any centrally-placed "accent of" the kind is, of course, becoming to. the' woman of hip width. A model which makes for slenderness I. have copied for you. It is carried out in navy and white and obeys all the new rules.

A breakaway from the use of-scol-lops is the twisted braiding that is used on the simple brief-sleeved front, running centrally from neck to hem, and which has such heightening effect in its long line. Narrowing, too, is the repetition:of this on the almost plain-set sleeve of the jacket. At the slightly., high frock waist is worn a "sporan" of white braid, which the ■jacket stands carefully open to reveal.