MAINLY FOR WOMEN

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 July 1928, Page 3

MAINLY FOR WOMEN

ITEMS OF INTEREST

(Notes by

Marjorie)

YOUTHFUL STYLES.

THE SUB-DEB’S WARDROBE

The new fashions are quite as important for the sub-deb as for her mother —we even suspect that she is more critical of their appropriateness and charm. For she can wear so many more of them than her elders, and she brings the charm of her youth to their distinction. Ono cannot name a detail that does not seem to belong to the junior mode, even black is smarter when its wearer is still in her “teens,” states a writer in an exchange. The ensemble is one of the iun.uamentals of the sub-deb’s wardrobe, for she goes in for activities to which it is appropriate. Proof of this is found in the new ensembles that have coats in all the varying lengths from the jacket to the full length model. And the frocks that go with them are either one or two-piece models, so planned that they are complete when .worn with another coat or without a wrap. Light-weight tweed is just as much a fabric for youth as for the matron. The frocks or ensemble suits in this material have interesting details of buttons, tucks, plaits, etc., and many of them feature detachable collars and cuffs of washable silk or crepe. Sometimes the frock is a small print design, especially suitable when the coat is a patterned one with stripes in sombre colourings. Printed silk frocks, in one and twopiece models, are favourites just now. Frocks of flowered georgette? or chiffon, worn over silk slips, have the small patterns that are so very sophisticated, yet smart. The slender young girl,wears a one-piece frock in two fabrics, its waist-line aproaching normal. The upper part may be of a print, the lower half in solid colour, as black,, when the print is in gay tones. Lace taffetas and tulle are the fabric choices for evening. The subdeb likes peach ,orchid, pink, American beauty, or some of the new greens and blues. She likes fabric combinations,'such as tulle and taffetas, tulle and satin, lace with taffetas or georgette. One material seems smarter Witten it is brought into contrast with another.

And she will choose, nine times out of ten, a period model, knowing that its bouffant lines will merely accent her slenderness. It will be a thing of flares and hows and sashes. It will dip -very deep in the back and be very short in front, for that is the way of the robe de style.

EMPIRE EVE BALL. The Empire Eve Ball, in aid of the funds of the Dominion Students’ Athletic Union, took place on May 23 at the May Fair Hotel; and was attended by a large company (says a London correspondent). A feature of the ball was a pageant entitled “H.M.S. Ark of Empire.” From a huge Noah’s Ark emerged “Mr and Mrs John Bull” (Sir Harry Brittain, M.P., and Mrs Hilton Philipson, M.P.,) followed by their Empire “children,” the Dominions each leading an animal typifying the country Represented. Thus “Mr and Mrs John Bull” led a lion, Canada a beaVer, India an elephant, Australia a kangaroo, South Africa a springbok, Southern Rhodesia a zebra, New Zealand a kitvi, the Malay States a tiger, the West Indies a turtle. West Africa an alligator, Newfoundland a caribou, Ceylon a hare, the Soudan a camel, the Irish Free State an Irish terrier, East Africa a giraffe, and Malta a parrot. The “animals” of the Ark were represented by students from the Dominion. Sir Harry Brittain was chairman of the Ball Committee, and Mrs Amery, the wife of the Secretary for the Dominions, was chairman of the ladies’ committee.

REMINIST MOVEMENT.

WOMAN’S CRITICISM OF WOMEN.

Women have come in for a good deal of criticism this week, wrote a London correspondent on May 16. There is nothing very new in that, of course; women have provided a target for half the critical remarks made in the last quarter of a century, but usually these remarks are made by men. Now it seems that women themselves are able to'regard their own sex dispassionately and impartially. Lady Ravensdale, the eldest daughter of the late Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, made more than one provocative statement when she gave her presidential address to the Union of Women Voters recently. Sh-e declared that this was a woman-ridden age, that we should agree upon the final disappearance of the feminist movement, and that women have noright to filch a post from a man as a relief from boredom. Her remarks were all the more interesting, since Lady Ravensdale certainly does not belong to the “Victorian brigade.” She is a very clever woman, with a modern outlook and modern sympathies. Iler great ambition ds to sit in the House of Lords, for she is a peeress in her own right, but as things stand at present, she thinks it would be a mistake to press the Bill for admitting women to the House of Lords. This would be to risk a third refusal, and she thinks it wiser to leave the matter until the next election campaign, when a Bill for the reform of the House of Lords will form part of the electioneering programme. But there is really nothing very reactionary about women sitting in the House of Lords. As far back as the fourteenth century peeresses were summoned to Parliament, and Lady Ravensdale'thinks it little less than tragic that women have so often to renew the attacks of their rights, and that of the thousands of women’s so-

cieties in England, nearly all of them

are demanding something. By “the

disappearance of the feminist movement,” Ladys Ravensdale does not mean that women should retire from active life altogether. Far from it. She wishes only to break down the jealousies and difficulties which still exist between the sexes, and to see Women and men working together—jointly, not separately.

ENGLISH WOMEN’S FEET. The feet of English women are much better shod than before the era of short skirts, and shoes are much more shapely. But the feet of English women are growing steadily larger. So, at any rate, a London correspondent is assured by the buyers of shoes from one of the largest and most successful of London’s great stores. When he first went into the shoe business twenty-five y’ears ago the average size of shoes was five. Size seven in those days would have been considered rather abnormal, but it is not so in our times, and almost all shoes are stocked in size eight. During the recent school holidays an elegant mother of good social position brought her sixteen-year-ohl daughter to be fitted for shoes. There were none in stock that would go on her feet, which were size 91, and some pairs had to be specially made. The mother wears a five-and-a-half shoe. “ALWAYS RIGHT.” Ignore judgments of those people who are reconstitutionally incapable of admitting themselves in the wrong. He who is obstinately persuaded that the earth is square will never be scientifically assured of its roundness; and by shouting his defiance loud enough and long enough he can win simple disciples to his unbelief. We may not so childishly yoke our intelligence to the chariot-wheels of sheer vociferous ignorance that apes sagacity with sufficient skill. The blatantly or blandly didactic, incredibly often, are taken at their own egregiously vanitarian valuation. “So-and-so is always right” is the artless tribute of inherent diffidence to unassailable self-con-'ceit. Meanwhile it is made conclusively apparent that there are few people who are more often wrong’ than those who cannot bear’ to admit it, and . whose invulnerable self-sufficiency iin- > poses its own colossal limitations on ■ mental growth. —M. de F.