SOME NEW NOTIONS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 5, 6 July 1939, Page 19

SOME NEW NOTIONS

VICTORIAN FASHION AS IT IS TODAY

What exactly constitutes the Victorian in fashions is a moot point. We do know, though;; that flowers arid, frills,1 curls and chignons, every, feminine foible short of swooning, flourishes again. For this reason alone it is well worth while to contemplate the modes of the last century and especially those worn in the sixty glorious years of Queen Victoria's: reign.

This' period covers a diversity of changes, for not only did the crinoline hold sway for several decades but it was ■■. eventually succeeded .by the bustle,; which grew and had its being in the last twenty years of the century.. , '.. ; '"■'■": .'■■■ '■•.'•..■■■ • .

Contrary to general belief, the vogue for poke bonnets, -macassar-oiled ringlets, arid -tiny mouselike feet does not imply more than the phases of fashion that were in evidence when Queen Victoria was young and to which her name will be given to the end of time.

Ten years ago the vogue for the Victorian, as we now know it, was an unheard-of thing. Wax flowers, antimacassars, red. plush, and yellow fringe were as despised as were the overloaded draperies and Highland cattle paintings. The."desire'for purity of line in fashion and furnishing found expression in feminine apparel of amazing- brevity and severity, while houses, both inside and out, were streamlined to represent the > utmost in utility.. . .

Veneer and. • ornamentation were handled lightly for a time, and there were those people who regarded any superfluous elaboration, with contempt as being the height of ugliness. It is true that a certain amount of Victorianisms were obtained by the meaningless overloading of already poor designs. But there was something rather charming in the overcrowded decorativeness of the era that is being revived today in fashions and furnishings. What we are now calling Victorian is really as much responsible to the Baroque as it is to the nineteenth century.

• With modern industrialisation, the process of changing fashions has been speeded up to such an extent that a frock or a room designed in the height of style one year will be quite dated the next.

In Victorian times the crinoline was favoured for many, many years before it was finally ousted by the bustle which in its turn was popular over a long period of time. Last year crinolines were again reinstated with a large proportion of their former importance. Now this year we have followed through the cycle in one jump by discarding the crinoline and demanding the Edwardian bustle. THE MODERN BUSTLE. The modern bustled evening dress is essentially a provocation for more feminism in fashion, accenting, as it does, the bust and hips while apparently reducing the waist to a mere

nothing. The Sarah Bernhardt "Polonaise" frock is to be another favourite type. I The bustle outline is achieved with .bows, panniers, and draped loops, while the Polonaise has a flatter, more draped

movement, that becomes the older woman • especially.

Poke bonnets are another steal from the Victorian, and, massed with flowers, do look most charming albeit worn with modern coiffures.

The Victorian in the modern home is treated with the contemporary love of all that is light, spacious, and practical.

The dark, sombre draperies are relegated to the past but valances, fiouncings, edged with jigging fringe, slipper chairs and dainty dimity curtains, ornate vases and stiff little arrangements of flowers are penetrating into the most modern homes again just as frank femininity has taken the fashion world by force.