BITES AND STINGS FESTIVE FASHION NOTIONS

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 150, 21 December 1940, Page 19

BITES AND STINGS

FESTIVE FASHION NOTIONS

SUMMER PRECAUTIONS

"BACK-TO-CHILDHOOD" COLOURS AND FABRICS

Fashions that will participate in the dancing whirl of Christmas festivities are very much in the holiday mood. They come in "back-to-childhood" colours and fabrics such as seersuckers, check ginghams, and dotted muslin, but in stylings they are sophisticated to the nth degree.

Bare "midriffs," long sleeves, and high, throatlines are some of the new ways of making evening fashions the subject of much animated comment. Then, too, there are the novel variations in skirt silhouettes which range from the full gathered type of several season's acceptance to the slender draped or "trumpet" trends which are glamour itself in its most modern form. The draped silhouette invariably adopts a one-sided effect with all the fullness looped to one side on one hip. The "trumpet" line is distinctly unusual although rather reminiscent of the styles of a decade or so ago with its clinging symmetry suddenly bursting into fullness from below the knees. Balancing this fullness at the hemline, there is usually a throat-ruffle on the bodice. BARE "MIDRIFFS." Bare "midriffs" are usually the accompaniment of styles made up in seaside cottons. The bodices are made to reach just a little short of the skirt top. The skirts, like a Nautch dancer's, are full and gathered to a fitting waistband. Draped pockets, one over either hip, dramatise some evening gowns that are cut with moderately full skirts and conservative lines. This is the last phase of the bustle fashions. Pages could be written about the charms of the evening gowns which are designed with long full balloon sleeves. They are real "sweetheart" fashions made on the most romantic lines with voluminous skirts and tight bodices, and low necklines in wide square, or heart shapes. Such a fashion is sketched today. It is of hailstone muslin banded at waist, neckline, and sleeves with double rows of narrow velvet ribbons. It is

Warmer summer days bring with them the problem of resisting plagues of insects. A great deal can be done to insure yourself against attack, and an old but excellent plan is to rub all exposed parts with a piece of cotton wool which has been moistened with pennyroyal. The use of a lavender scented talc or a coal-tar soap is sometimes effective, while some swear by a few drops of eucalyptus oil used in the morning bath. If you are contemplating an evening fishing expedition and do not want to have your ankles devoured by sandflies, here is a plan which never fails. Wear two thin pairs of stockings, with a thick sprinkling of pyrethrum powder between. If a persevering insect should manage to pierce your various defences and leave his mark upon you, don't be too philosophical about it. Insect bites can be painful and unsightly, and even dangerous if neglected. The irritation can be checked by dabbing the place with liquid ammonia, lemon juice, or vinegar, or, if nothing else is handy, a solution of soda-bicarbonate. It's a good idea to include in one's holiday kit a few of the new selfadhesive bandages which, sticking to themselves but not to the skin, makes such a neat j.ob without the necessity for tying or pinning. Porous to the air, but impervious to water so that they will not come off when washing or bathing, these bandages are particularly suitable for slight holiday accidents.

suggested here in white with cherry ribbons. DOUBLE-DUTY GOWNS. House gowns of great distinction double as evening dresses so beautiful are they. Sometimes with wide py-

jamas instead of a skirt, they are belted at the waist and often have long-sleeved blouses of a highly decorative nature. White organdie or rare Swiss muslin are liked for the blouses while brilliant flowered rayon jersey is a popular favourite, for the pyjamas and skirt. House gowns of cotton may be as formal as dance dresses when they are of check ginghams or embroidered batistes with crisp trimmings of white pique or lacy Pierrette ruffles. M.R.