LONDON'S JANUARY SALES

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 59, 9 March 1940, Page 19

LONDON'S JANUARY SALES

FIRST SWALLOWS OF FASHION WORLD

LONDON, January 10.

Evidently it takes more than a war to upset London's January sales, which are having a great success this year. Women are being lured back to town to seize the opportunity of replenishing their neglected wardrobes—at pre-war prices.

With so much attention focused on the home during long "black-out" avenings. the need for brighter furnishings has become acute in many houses that were hastily draped with the densest black at the "outbreak."

Again, the sales are helping the somewhat anxious housewife, who wishes to raise the spirits of her family without digging too deeply into the diminishing budget. Lovely coloured furnishing fabrics that can now cover the black —and allow the gloomy lamp shades to be banished —are offered at .such tempting prices that the cautious souls keep asking how will the shops replace them for the next season? Well, there is no harm in hoping, and I am all on the side of the optimists . who feel the end of this awful period will come sooner than authority dares to anticipate. Spring has come to the Royal Academy earlier this year, with a most unusual exhibition of pictures by British artists of every school of thought. The show is in aid of ; the Lord Mayor's Red Cross and St. John's Fund, and among its 2000 pictures are included works of all the "rebels" of the last thirty years. Perhaps, we ire all more tolerant these days, but many pictures that caused sensations in the past have ceased to shock, while others have acquired a deeper significance as portraying a happier period in our history. - BRIGHTLY PLUMAGED. January always sees the first swallows of the fashion world, and this year they are likely to be brightly plumaged. New colours are to be bright as an antidote to war boredom, with a "red sail in the sunset" shade as first favourite.

New woollens are exploiting these gay colours in plain and patterned designs. Tweeds are always bright, but what a variety of fabrics come under

the heading of tweed these days! We still have the utilitarian browns and beiges, but by far the greatest number show checks, plaids, stripes, etc.. in the most original colour combinations.

Little dresses of these gay tweeds have been great favourites this season, simply made with squared shoulders, trim waists, flared or pleated skirts, and original pockets placed high on bodice and skirt.

And, of course, a short plaid jacket to wear with a plain wool frook or odd skirt and jumper has endless possibilities in giving variety. We shall wear much wool this spring 1 am sure, and tomorrow I am attending a preview of the- first London spring fashion collection. I have sketched a brief bolero jacket suit for your late summer in a pale coloured woollen, worn with a frilly blouse of spotted net. This style is ideal for wearing with a fur stole or short fur jacket when the first cool breath of autumn chills the air. The shorter skirt is flared with stitched, wide-apart, sunray tucks to accentuate the line. ROYALTY IN OVERALLS. All the small children have fallen for those attractive pictures ;of the youthful Prince Edward and Princess Alexandra of Kent in their play-time overalls.

Now they have been adopted in exclusive nurseries and gardens as the correct outfit for work and play, and are being made in attractive coloured linens to wear over contrasting blouses or sweaters.

The overall has also attracted the fashion designer. I saw a charming black dinner dress made on these lines —narrow skirt instead of trousers— over a short-sleeved blouse of frillad lace in a pale honey colour that almost

matched the wearer's softly-waved hair. Buckles at the shoulder straps and waist belt of brilliants dispelled the workaday appearance.

Incidentally, women are wearing their hair shorter, but not shingled. The Edwardian curls came down from the top of the head with a rush, and hair styles generally have become simpler But even in uniform women still realise the importance of a becoming headdress of soft short curls that frame the face and nape of the neck under a service cap.

E RUTH SIBI.EY