Chat From Paris

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 80, 1 October 1938, Page 19

Chat From Paris

Before the really summery millinery assails us we will have to consider the mid-season hat. Except in size, it is as bewilderingly variable as ever it was.

Paris has reacted very definitely to the influence of England's Queen in the matter, \7hich, of course, means not only that black and white, as well 'as black with white, has the popular vote, but that most are medium for-ward-tilted shapes with under-brim trimming.

This last is not' necessary if you are willing to attempt the high-piled or high-curled Edwardian coiffure. TheQueen's hair, however, was done with extreme simplicity, evidencing no extreme of any kind. One charming white shape was flat of crown, its brim half hidden in quite coarse and crisp white veiling that partly obscured also the bunched lilac grouped at back under the brim. A PAPER PANAMA. j b With a summer-weight suit was worn . recently a paper panama in snowy!

white; with a man's undented crown. A crisp white bow aslant in front secured two tall ostrich feathers —one red and one blue —and again the brim was softened with wide-mesh veil.

. The most charming hats are prepared for the English Ascot. One is of platelike flatness, with undulating edge and a rather severe arrangement of formal poppies of stiffened white organza. These are placed immediately under the brim and immediately over the left ear.

In happy contrast is one that is practically all brim. This is well back on the head and standing stiffly upright, except for a decided twist in front. The "crown" is a width of contrasting scarf that comes through to the front •athwart the brow and ties with long scarf ends below the right ecr. A forward-tilted fez shape gets a certain amount of recognition and certainly suits some types admirably. VEIL YOUR FEZ. One such shape is diagonally striped in pastel pinks,: blues,.- and -greys, _ A

MID-SEASON HATS

tight veil that yet does not grip under the chin covers all and secures at the back.

Crowned for spring is surely the model I have sketched foY you on the blonde. It is built, as you see, almost entirely of bunches of hyacinths, placed on an arrangement of bandeaux that fit the head and tie at the back. Apparently we may dispense with realism. The bandeau is of black moire; both the flowers and their stems are paper white.

Flowers arranged in such eccentric manner are to be the essence of summer chic, so you may prepare now to evolve some original eccentricity that will undoubtedly pass as smart millinery when the days are longest. Note that the simplicity of this model is designed for the equally simple extension of the page-boy coiffure. We are told that this will reach shoulderblade length. CHIGNONS CAN BE LOVELY. The coiffure in my other sketch illustrates the very definite charm of the chignon, especially for the woman

of straight-featured and grave beauty.; This accompanies one of the feathered, models that will vie for place with the flowered this season.

A disc-like coarse and shining straw that curves up all round has a mere peak for its crown. From this sprout soft feather fronds that droop on to the brim and placed centrally is a curious feathered ornament in black and looking extraordinarily like a miniature sweep's broom.

Ostrich feathers in all their glory have been several times chosen by the Duchess of Kent, who wears her ears bared and her hair lifted high at the back in the Edwardian manner. One worn in the last week was of velvet— the regular "toque" of the Queen Alexandra style, with upturned brim and crown wreathed with feather. A large plume.at the extreme left swung upright and drooped over the crown. Another has a brim that is wider in front and turns up more instantly. But it also is sparsely wreathed round with ostrich feather and plumed bunchily at-the-side..

due to a widespread love of gambling among women.

Apparently this, if true, was mostly in Edwardian times, when there was an immense flow of gaiety and extravagance into society after the somewhat rigid rule of Victoria. Probably expenses soared. Women of the time were not as a rule good financiers, and the feeling that they must, at any price, keep their place in society, induced them gradually to develop, not only the gambling spirit, but the business acumen wiich brought in the wherewithal to meet the unusual expenses of life.

A good deal of all this probably faded out with the oncoming of the suffragist movement, when women, of all classes hurled themselves into the maelstrom of confusion which the cry "Votes for women" raised throughout the British Isles, and thus politics took the place of gambling with large numbers. The everlasting energy of women, which has so largely helped to keep this world going at all, was expended in meetings, speeches, and efforts to gain what was felt as a right and asked for on those lines. Then came the war, which a recent speaker objected to being called the "Great War," for he said it was not great in any sense except as a disaster, and he is largely right in his ideas. Women thereupon diverted their energies— immediately dropping the smaller issues for the time being, and took their heroic stand as workers in the cause of patriotism, doing all kinds of menial jobs to which often they were quite unaccustomed, bearing inconveniences, and showing a courage that was remarkable. It was wonderfully complete that "switch-over" from political issues to definite help in an emergency that had come to their native land. It is one of the most cheering things to women who care for their sex at all, that they should have done all they did and that they were given the right for which they had fought feo bravely and uselessly in pre-war days. It is all very interesting to look back upon. The writer of the thesis on the gambling of women might well write something newer and more enlightening as to. the character of the women of her country.