TIPPICS FOR WOMEN BEACH WEAR GOES EASTERN

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 133, 2 December 1937, Page 25

TIPPICS FOR WOMEN

BEACH WEAR GOES EASTERN

LONDON, November 5,

Even in the midst of preparation for winter London dress designers give a thought to warmer climates overseas. This week I have seen several collections of clothes destined for cruising and the returning Anglo-Indian. My drawings show a selection of beach wear chosen from the cruise department of a big sports store. ■ Gay, impossible prints are still "firsts" for the sands. With splendid disregard for their origin, these cheerful mountain designs from the Austrian Tyrol have been interpreted in beach frocks and wraps, play-suits, blouses, bags, shoes, and turbans. The material ;s sanforised cotton that is unshrinkable and does not fade. The figure seated wears a bandeau top of green Tyroi print with pleated tie-on skirt to match. The crown of her cart-wheel straw hat has been cut away and replaced by two bands of the printed material. She carries a beach-bag

made of the print in two contrasting colours, and her sandals have jointed wooden soles and cotton tops. Her shorts are plain white duck with" turnback cuffs.

The girl with the navy blue slacks wears a yellow printed blouse with draw-string waist and her rolled turban is made of the same material.

Indian prints reminiscent of the Taj Mahal and turreted Hindu temples make enchanting beach-wear at one store—the print is particularly goodlooking in long, ankle-length wraps, and. of course, lends itself perfectly to the craze for turbans. Swim-suits are now practically all of the dressmaker variety, and very often made from silk jersey—either plain or printed. They are not quite so short as last year and often have slight fullness—achieved either by circular cut or inset pleats—in the skirt. The current vogue for draping has here expressed itself in ingenious brassiere tops that cross and twist. Cotton swimsuits are shown, too —nearly always on a jersey foundation. Scarves and bags made of matching print' and barbaric wooden and metal jewellery ' are beach accessories. A yellow cotton hat, cart-wheel shape and stitched in ribs, is-banded with a sea-shell lei. A striking turban is made of mustard, fish-net—with this wear huge gold earring knobs. Separate twisted brassiere tops made

MAKE EVENING FROCKS OF LINEN

from multi-striped cotton go with floorlength skirts that tie round the waist, where they are gathered on to a narrow band. A sleeveless ankle-length coat of horizontally striped cotton buttons from back to knee—the buttons being placed in groups of two. Search the shops for unusual prints and use your own ingenuity to devise your beach-wear. The beach is the one place where you can dress as crazily as you please and be admired for it—and where you can make clothes -that are indistinguishable from the models. A few weeks ago an Australia;! friend of mine who was here on holiday was asked to stay with friends who had a villa on the Riviera coast. She didn't want to spend very much on her clothes —she had quite a few beach things already—but she felt that her wardrobe lacked zest, so she set about to make a few grand extras and sha asked me tp help design them. First o* all we went to the soft-furnishing

department of ci big store and bought two bedspreads—cream candle-wick one and an Indian striped cotton one. From these she made two extremely effective wraps—there was even enough left over of the striped one to make shorts and a brassiere top to match. Then from a piece of striped linen she already possessed, we made an evening frock. The linen stripe was an unusual one—candy pink and turquoise green with a broad white band at occasional intervals. Because it ran diagonally across the material we at first found it very difficult to manipulate, but after much experimenting we discovered that it could be cut in two wide semi-circles to form a circular skirt with stripes going horizontally round it. At the waist the stripes rose higher at the back and front than the sides, so we exaggerated that by making the band round the diaphram repeat the colour of this highest stripe—it happened to be the turquoise one. Then from the leftover pieces we cut a brassiere top almost all of the pink, and made pink straps to match.

This dress proved the success of her wardrobe. At a dance at one of the big hotels at Cannes she was complimented on it by none other than Heim, the foremost beach designer of France, who was at the time holding a display of beach fashions at the same hotel. —Barbara.