FEATHERS AND FURS

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 7, 9 July 1945, Page 8

FEATHERS AND FURS

WINTER FASHIONS AT TRENTHAM RACES

The winter race meeting usually finds Trentham in its most sombre mood. One misses the flamboyant splashes of summer and autumn flower beds, but in winter, as on Saturday, the first day of the Wellington Racing Club's Winter Meeting, the green lawns, the leafless English trees, and the distant vista of the ranges are part of a pleasant harmony of green, blue, and grey. The. day was unusually mild for mid-winter, but a cool wind made women race-goers appreciate warm coats and furs, which were worn in a great variety of styles, from the bolero jackets to full-length coats, and frequently as trimming for. coats and hats. One of the most luxurious fur coats seen was a full-length wrap of split silver fox skins.. The wearer's hat, a smart roll-brimmed sailor of pebble-beige veiled with grey, repeated the subtle tones of the fur. Another most attractive ensemble was a pale grey frock trimmed with lime green buttons and worn beneath a grey squirrel coat, a lime green ostrich plume sweeping the crown of the wearer's pale grey hat. , , There were, once more, many versions of the Trentham fashion favourite, the three-piece ensemble of suit and top-coat in matching tweed. Although. Saturday's meeting was by no means an "orchid festival," as was the Winter Meeting during recent years, there were several lovely lapel sprays of orchids worn and violets also were popular costume flowers. \ , The lounge in the stewards' stand was bright with flowers, masses of yellow jonquils, and orange Iceland ooppies filling the window-rboxes arid bowls of irises were used to decorate the rooms. ■ Feathers dyed in the full range of the colour chart supplied a note of frivolity in the otherwise subdued dressing. A three-inch wide quill of

scarlet slashed the side of the forest green felt hat worn by a smartlydressed matron, a bunch of curled ostrich-tips sprang from the top of a high crown, like a potted-plant bursting into bloom, and a tuft of saffron-yellow plumes rose startlingly from the front of a brown velvet snood which completely enveloped the wearer's hair. Freak styles, however, were comparatively few, though there were several of the "coolie" shapes with stove-pipe crowns in gay shades. Velvet fashioned many becoming hats. One of the smartest noted on the course was of cherry velvet rolled and ruched into a large rosette, which was worn well forward and secured by a broad cherry ribbon band. Mrs. Eric Riddiford, wife of the president of the Racing Club, entertained a number of luncheon . guests, including their Excellencies the Governor-General and Lady Newall, their daughters, Georgiana and Diana^ Miss Norah Walton, the Hon. Adam Hamilton, Mrs. J. G. Coates, the Consul-General for China, Mr. Wang Feng, and Mrs. Wang Feng. Dr. A. McGregor Grant (a .vice-president of the Auckland Racing Club), and Mrs. Grant, Mr. and Mrs. Nolan and Miss Nolan (Gisborne). Mrs. Riddiford was wearing a tailored tweed coat in beige, cinnamon, and brown checks, with brown accessories. Her smart brown ... bowlerbrimmed hat was trimmed across the front with upstanding wings in the same shade. Her Excellency Lady Newall, was wearing a smart black cloth ensemble, the coat, fitted* at the waist, was trimmed with black Persian lamb, and her high-crowned black felt hat had a clustered side-trimming of dusky pink silk velvet. Miss Walton's tailored suit and matching swing-coat were of pale grey and blue flecked tweed with which she wore cravat, accessories, and felt hat of navy blue.