CLOTHES IN WARTIME

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 17, 20 January 1940, Page 17

CLOTHES IN WARTIME

MARRY IN FLANNEL

QUITE THE LATEST IDEA

(By Air Mall,"from Post's" London Representative.)

LONDON, December 15,

Frances Day, the popular and attractive variety artist, says: "You daren't ration fashion. You must continue to live graciously, dress elegantly, and shop cheerfully. War is,> challenge to women to remain fashionable." .■;■'; .'•.;■■■'•;:' .-.;■■ ■..''.-■

"Fashion should never stand still;" says Lady Hart-Dyke. "If it does, it is bad for trade and bad for feminine nerves." Lady Hart-Dyke is the owner of England's only silk farm, and this has been now taken over by the Government. ■' ;. These two ladies were associated

'\ ■ t • ' ' ■ with a dress show at Grosvenor House, organised on behalf, of Frances Day's "Penny Fund" sending games to men <in the Services. So charmingly did she sing some of her best-known songs and make her appeal that the collection boxes should have been crowded with coins. The clothes shown were modelled by leading London and Paris designers, several of whom wor.e Service uniforms. More than one of the fashionable men designers of women's clothes are busy with important camouflage work which calls for originality in the desire to make something look like what it is not. REMARKABLE WEDDING DRESS. To New Zealand must be accredited a prominent part in the afternoon's success, for she supplies much of the raw material which the International Wool Secretariat eventually presents to the world in the way of the finished garments, all of them skilfully cut and designed by the dress artists of London and Paris. The award, for originality and success must be accorded to the bride, who was dressed in ivory flannel. Imagine it! Flannel suggests old-time and voluminous "petties" and nighties. But the slim-line wedding "own of ivory flannel of the finest texture. With its guarantee of non-shrinking quality it can be washed with complete confidence. The dress was designed to be adaptable as all wartime fashions should be —the train flicks off and the tunic can be worn with a short black day length skirt in a restaurant. The gown is typical of the new wartime fashionextremely modern and simplified in design, straight in silhouette, unfussy and relying on beauty of colour and fabric, and luxurious embroidery for effect. The long, absolutely plain train was carried by a small blonde boy. of six in trouWs of the same material as the bride's dress, with a copper fire wool shirt. The bride's circular headdress, worn tiJted forward, was adorned with white wool arum lilies, and on the wool muff were more arums. TROUSSEAU ACCOMPANIMENTS. The bride included in her trousseau a copper fire duveteen coat trimmed with a fluted yard-wide hem of skunk, and a prune duveteen dinner s lit. . Ideal wartime dinner fashions included a fine wool dress with porcelain blue duveteen jacket and muff, or alternatively, bright cherry wool cape, both edged magnificently with fur —glamorous and practical. "Scarabe" was the name given to an aquamarine wool dinner dress trimmed with bands of black satin. A black wool dancing dress was very much an advance fashion of the day. with its. short panties of black satin— this all-in-one—to be stepped into in a couple of minutes. . COLOURFUL SETS. A good idea for any pretty young girl is a knitted set consisting of jumper, cap, and stockings, all of the same wool. With silk stockings daily becoming more scarce and more expensive, it is sensible for the girl who walks a lot to switch over to stockings.of wool— the mannequin had chosen a pale apricot for her triumverate. Another charming idea is the twisted turban